{"id":99382,"date":"2018-06-06T12:48:55","date_gmt":"2018-06-06T18:48:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/city-of-durango-repeals-limits-on-jury-trials\/"},"modified":"2018-06-06T12:48:55","modified_gmt":"2018-06-06T18:48:55","slug":"city-of-durango-repeals-limits-on-jury-trials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/city-of-durango-repeals-limits-on-jury-trials\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Durango repeals limits on jury trials"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><!-- gallery:3fe887d5-c02c-482d-8c62-e6611a5a7d5e --><\/p>\n<p>Durango City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to repeal a law that prohibited residents facing a fine for low-level criminal offenses from requesting a jury trial.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">American Civil Liberties Union<\/a> informed the city last year that denying Municipal Court defendants the right to a jury trial, even for petty offenses, violates the Colorado law. The city code previously allowed only defendants facing jail time to request a trial. City law will now allow any defendant to request a trial.<\/p>\n<p>City judges and prosecutors started informing defendants in Municipal Court of their right after the city received a letter from the ACLU.<\/p>\n<p><\/p><div class=\"naviga-social-embed\">&lt;![CDATA[\n<div class=\"pdf-asset-embed\">\n  ACLU Letter<br>\n  <iframe src=\"\/\/dur-cjweb.newscyclecloud.com\/assets\/pdf\/CJ33659366.PDF\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pdf-download-notice\">If you\u2019re unable to view the PDF document above, <a href=\"https:\/\/dur-cjweb.newscyclecloud.com\/assets\/pdf\/CJ33659366.PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">click here<\/a> to view it in a new tab<\/div>\n<p>\n]]&gt;<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Since then, the city has not seen many requests for trials, City Attorney Dirk Nelson said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe sort of knew all along it wouldn\u2019t be a huge change,\u201d he said, in an interview.<\/p>\n<p>The change brings the city ordinances in line with a Colorado Court of Appeals ruling in the case of <a href=\"https:\/\/caselaw.findlaw.com\/co-court-of-appeals\/1715344.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Roalstad v. City of Lafayette,<\/a> which found that those charged with petty offenses have a right to a jury trial, Nelson said.<\/p>\n<p>The city\u2019s unlawful ordinance was brought to the ACLU\u2019s attention while representing Anthony Nocella, national director of Save the Kids, who was accused of obstructing Durango streets and parading without a permit. Former Fort Lewis College assistant professor Nocella said he did not organize or lead the protest that led to the charges. He helped with traffic and assisted police, he said.<\/p>\n<p>When he demanded a jury trial, the city said he wasn\u2019t entitled to a jury trial because the prosecutor wasn\u2019t seeking any jail time.<\/p>\n<p>However, Nocella could have faced up to 90 days in jail and\/or a $1,000 fine, the ACLU\u2019s letter said. The city prosecutor was seeking a $200 fine and later dropped the case entirely because of the time and cost involved to pursue it.<\/p>\n<p>Nocella said he was glad to see the city formally revise local law. Often, defendants accused of low-level crimes assume they have to plead guilty when that is not the case, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a better opportunity for individuals that go to the Durango court to make a better case for themselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"mwc_shirttail\"><a href=\"mailto:mshinn@durangoherald.com\">mshinn@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dur-cjweb.newscyclecloud.com\/assets\/pdf\/CJ33659366.%20PDF\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ACLU Letter (PDF)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>city law violates Colorado Constitution<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":99383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[1020,525],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-99382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-durango-city-council","tag-trials"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99382","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=99382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99382"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=99382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}