{"id":27804,"date":"2024-05-06T23:47:21","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T23:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/district-attorneys-office-begins-reviewing-all-arrest-search-warrant-affidavits\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T06:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:12:14","slug":"district-attorneys-office-begins-reviewing-all-arrest-search-warrant-affidavits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/district-attorneys-office-begins-reviewing-all-arrest-search-warrant-affidavits\/","title":{"rendered":"District attorney\u2019s office begins reviewing all arrest, search warrant affidavits"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sean
Sean Murray, is sworn in by Suzanne F. Carlson, 6th Judicial District Judge, on Friday, March 15, 2024, as the new district attorney for the 6th Judicial District of Colorado at the La Plata County Courthouse. (Jerry McBride\/ Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Law enforcement officers seeking a judge\u2019s signature on an arrest or search warrant must submit criminal affidavits to the District Attorney\u2019s Office for review before the documents are sent to a judge, per an April 15 administrative order issued by 6th Judicial District Chief Judge Jeffrey Wilson.<\/p>\n

The order applies to all criminal affidavits for an arrest warrant, search warrant, order for production of records and order for non-testimonial identification.<\/p>\n

In the last several years, prosecutors have reviewed affidavits only at the request of law enforcement.<\/p>\n

However, occasionally judges have received affidavits that are defective and do not adequately demonstrate the necessary probable cause, Wilson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t be in the position of helping (either side),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rather than have to reject defective affidavits or ask questions and lead officers to amend the document, judges shouldn\u2019t receive inadequate affidavits at all.<\/p>\n

\"Sixth
Sixth Judicial District Chief Judge Jeffrey Wilson. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file)<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Wilson said that typically, defective affidavits are the product of an oversight or \u201csomething they didn\u2019t even think of or didn\u2019t realize they had to put in.\u201d<\/p>\n

In nearly every other district in the state, prosecutors review affidavits before they are seen by a judge. The practice had been standard in the 6th Judicial District, but ceased at some point in the last several years.<\/p>\n

District Attorney Sean Murray called the order a \u201creally good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ll not only improve the quality of the affidavits that are being submitted to the courts, but I think it will also improve the quality of our relationship with law enforcement because we\u2019ll be more hands-on with cases at the front end,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n

The order has created an additional five hours of work weekly for Murray\u2019s office, and prosecutors are taking turns on a two-week schedule carrying a phone for reviews of after-hours emergency affidavits, of which there have been two or three per shift.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors have sent warrants that do not sufficiently establish probable cause back to law enforcement since the order took effect.<\/p>\n

Despite the increased workload on the front end of cases, the review process gives prosecutors a stronger position when they face motions to suppress, given that the legality of arrest affidavits are less likely to be called into question.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt provides greater protection for the public\u2019s constitutional rights knowing that there\u2019s an extra layer of review, protecting them from unreasonable searches and seizures,\u201d Murray said. \u201c\u2026 So I do think that the public will benefit from the DA\u2019s office exercising that oversight on law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n

rschafir@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

to better demonstrate probable cause, keep judges out of legal fray<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27805,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1078,2703,28,1646,1515,1025],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-27804","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-6th-judicial-district","tag-criminal","tag-headlines","tag-judge","tag-judiciary-system-of-justice","tag-law-and-justice"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27804","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27804"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27804\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80203,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27804\/revisions\/80203"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27804"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27804"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27804"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=27804"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}