Colorado Criminal Defense Attorney

Remain calm and do not resist. Invoke your right to remain silent by saying, "I am invoking my right to remain silent and I want an attorney." Do not answer questions or consent to searches. Call a Colorado criminal defense attorney immediately — the decisions made in the first 24 hours after an arrest can determine the outcome of your case.

A DUI (Driving Under the Influence) means your ability to drive was substantially impaired, or your BAC was 0.08% or higher. A DWAI (Driving While Ability Impaired) is a lesser charge for impairment "to the slightest degree," typically with a BAC between 0.05% and 0.079%. All carry possible jail time, fines, and consequences to your driver's license.

Two tracks open at once: a criminal case (up to one year in jail, fines, alcohol classes, and probation) and a DMV administrative action under Colorado's express-consent law (license suspension or revocation). The DMV track has a hard seven-day deadline to request a hearing — if you miss it, the license suspension takes effect automatically, regardless of what happens in the criminal case. Most first-time DUI defendants lose their license not from the criminal conviction but from missing the DMV deadline.

You can refuse, but Colorado's express-consent law treats refusal as an automatic one-year license revocation for a first refusal, two years for a second, and three years for a third — and refusal can be argued against you at trial. There is no Fifth Amendment privilege against chemical testing in Colorado. The right question is rarely whether to refuse; it is what to do in the first few hours after a stop, before either decision is forced.

A Colorado DUI conviction stays on your driving record for life. DUI convictions are explicitly excluded from Colorado's record-sealing statutes (C.R.S. § 24-72-706 and § 24-72-707), which means employers, insurers, and licensing boards can see it indefinitely. Sealing is only available for non-conviction outcomes — dismissals, acquittals, and successfully completed deferred judgments. That is one of the strongest reasons to fight the charge rather than plead it out.

Only the prosecution can drop a charge — the alleged victim cannot. However, an experienced defense attorney can attack the evidence, negotiate with the District Attorney, and push for dismissal, reduction, or a deferred judgment that protects your record and your firearm rights.

Yes. Both Colorado law and the federal Lautenberg Amendment (18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9)) prohibit firearm possession after a misdemeanor domestic-violence conviction. The federal prohibition is permanent and applies any time you had a qualifying relationship with the alleged victim. Even a deferred judgment, structured the wrong way, can trigger the prohibition. This is one of the most consequential collateral effects of a domestic-violence plea — and one of the strongest reasons to push for an outcome that avoids it.

Not without violating Colorado's mandatory protection order. Under C.R.S. § 18-1-1001, every domestic-violence case automatically begins with a court-ordered protection order prohibiting contact with the alleged victim and presence at any shared residence. Violating it is a separate criminal charge — even if the alleged victim is the one who initiates the contact. The protection order can be modified by motion, but until that happens, no contact means no contact.

A protection order — temporary (TPO), permanent (PPO), or a mandatory criminal-case protection order under C.R.S. § 18-1-1001 — is a court order restricting contact, residence, firearm possession, and sometimes employment. Violating one is a separate criminal charge that can be filed even when the underlying case is dismissed. Protection orders can be contested at the issuance hearing or modified later by motion, but neither happens automatically — you have to ask for it, with evidence.

Often, yes. A Fourth Amendment suppression motion that wins removes the evidence — and without the evidence, the prosecution typically cannot proceed. Colorado has rich case law on the length of traffic stops (Rodriguez v. United States), the deployment of drug dogs, pretextual stops, and the limits of consent. Suppression is the single highest-leverage motion in most Colorado drug cases. Whether it is available in yours depends on facts that are usually buried in the police report and body-camera footage.

Yes, as a matter of right. A direct appeal to the Colorado Court of Appeals must be filed within 49 days of the judgment of conviction. The issues on appeal are limited to what was preserved in the trial-court record, which is why appellate strategy often starts before trial ends. Some convictions can also be reviewed by the Colorado Supreme Court on a discretionary basis. Appeals are written advocacy and require a different skill set than trial work.

Colorado Rule of Criminal Procedure 35 is the post-conviction motion procedure. Rule 35(a) corrects an illegal sentence; Rule 35(b) seeks a discretionary sentence reduction (a strict 126-day window applies); and Rule 35(c) is the vehicle for collateral attacks on the conviction itself — ineffective assistance of counsel, newly discovered evidence, prosecutorial misconduct, and constitutional violations. The timing and procedural rules are unforgiving, which is why Rule 35 work is usually handled by an attorney who has lived in the appellate courts.

Don't wait. Colorado's police accountability statute (SB20-217 / C.R.S. § 13-21-131) generally allows two years from the date of injury, but the Colorado Governmental Immunity Act (C.R.S. § 24-10-109) imposes a 182-day notice-of-claim requirement that may apply depending on the defendants and claims involved. The strategic posture in Colorado state court is also materially stronger than federal 42 U.S.C. § 1983 because qualified immunity is barred under the state statute — but you have to file properly to get that advantage. The shortest possible deadline should drive your timeline.

Possibly — and the trigger is rarely the arrest itself. Different regulators apply different rules: physicians and nurses report to DORA; pilots report to the FAA under 14 C.F.R. § 61.15; security-clearance holders are adjudicated under SEAD-3; gaming-industry employees are reviewed by the Division of Gaming; and teachers face Colorado Department of Education action. The right defense strategy is to avoid the specific conviction structures that trigger reporting in your field. The criminal case is the foundation everything else is built on — handled correctly, it can prevent the licensing problem from ever opening.

Talk to a defense attorney before you talk to your employer. Many employment contracts and professional-licensing rules require self-reporting only on certain types of convictions, charges, or arrests — and the wrong disclosure can trigger consequences a conviction itself would not. The criminal-case strategy and your reporting obligations should be coordinated together, not separately.

Initial consultations at the Law Office of Daniel H. Kyser are free. Fees depend on the charges, complexity, and whether the case proceeds to trial or appeal. Flexible payment plans are available, and Daniel is transparent about what your defense will cost before you sign anything.