Category: Felonies

One of the most frequent complaints I hear from prospective clients during free consultations is that the police did not read them their rights.  The significance of any such omission may not be as serious as you would think.

 

There is no blanket rule requiring a police officer to read you your rights, or as they are known in legal terms, Miranda rights.  You are only entitled to a

A story receiving some media attention in the Rocky Mountain area this weekend is the filing of charges against two men in Utah for allegedly knocking over a rock formation. One has been charged with criminal mischief, and the other charged with conspiracy to commit criminal mischief, both felonies.  The video of the incident, which occurred several months ago, has received many hits online.

 

While one of the men

A commonly held belief is that if you are arrested and the police fail to read you your rights, your case will be invalidated and possibly dismissed.  This belief is not, however, accurate.  If police fail to read you your Miranda rights, the relevance of that failure is that the prosecutor cannot use any statements obtained from you following your arrest in their prosecution.

 

To have your Miranda rights

One legal concept I frequently get questioned about is the statute of limitations.  Different offenses have different applicable statutes of limitations, meaning that different offenses have different set time limits for the filing of charges.  Some offenses, of course, have no statute of limitations at all.  Should a statute of limitations apply and charges not be filed within the pertinent time period, then charges cannot be filed at some later

The Bill, introduced by a Republican representative in the state House, would allow felons whose felony convictions were non-violent, or also did not involve arson or otherwise the use of any force, to regain their firearm rights.  Currently, Colorado law mandates that all felons, regardless of the nature of their conviction, lose their firearm rights.  The idea behind this law is that a non-violent felon is much less likely to