Colorado Springs Vehicular Assault Case Dismissed

On February 11, 2014, the District Attorneys Office agreed to dismiss a vehicular assault case in which three individuals, including my client were badly injured. The case was charged as a class four felony, with the potential of 2-6 years of imprisonment. Ultimately, the DA agreed there were serious flaws in their investigation, and accordingly, they had little or no likelihood of success at trial. The trend in Colorado Springs among law enforcement and the DA’s Office of charging someone with little or no evidence and simply “letting the jury figure it out” is troubling, as it forces cases to be tried despite there being little or no likelihood of success. Moreover, it violates the Rules of Professional conduct and simply wastes the time of jurors.

Obtaining a dismissal of serious charges is getting harder and harder, but fortunately, in this case, we were able to spare our client the unnecessary costs and stress, which is inherent in any case which goes to trial, even those in which a conviction is unlikely.

In this case we were able to use forensic evidence, including accident reconstruction and forensic toxicology to show that our client wasn’t at fault for in the accident, and that he wasn’t substantially incapable of safely operating a motor vehicle, which is the standard under Colorado’s vehicular assault law.