So you have been charged with a criminal case in Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Denver, Douglas, Jefferson, or Weld County, and when you go to court for the first time a judge advises you that your case involves an act of domestic violence. You may think to yourself that no violence was involved in my case. What makes a domestic violence (DV) case a domestic violence case?
In Arapahoe County and other counties in Colorado, domestic violence means an act or threatened act of violence upon a person with whom the person charged is or has been involved in an intimate relationship. Colorado law defines “intimate relationship” as a relationship between spouses, former spouses, past or present unmarried couples, or persons who are both the parents of the same child regardless of whether the persons have been married or have lived together at any time. Recent Colorado case law has interpreted “intimate relationship” to include exclusive dating relationships that have not been sexual.
Domestic violence in Denver County and other counties in Colorado also include any other crime against a person, or against property, including an animal, or any municipal ordinance violation against a person, or against property, including an animal, when used as a method of coercion, control, punishment, intimidation, or revenge directed against a person with whom the person charged is or has been involved in an intimate relationship.
Some examples of domestic violence cases from Arapahoe, Denver, and Jefferson county include damaging of joint property, taking a spouse’s car keys, or cell phone as a means of control, intimidation, or revenge. These types of cases do not involve physical violence, but are classified as an act of domestic violence.
Basically, in Jefferson county or in any other county in Colorado, a domestic violence case can include allegations of actual violence against another person, or other crimes such as arson, criminal mischief, harassment, interruption of telephone service, stalking, theft, and trespassing with a person that you were once in a relationship with. This is why your Adams, Arapahoe, Boulder, Denver, Douglas, Jefferson, or Weld County case can involve allegations of domestic violence when there was actually no violence involved at all.
We serve clients charged with domestic violence in Adams, Arapahoe, boulder, Denver, Douglas, Jefferson, Weld and other Colorado counties. If you have been charged with domestic violence, be smart, remain silent, and call us at 303-731-0719. Together, we can protect your future.