Aurora’s decision to stop prosecuting domestic violence cases in municipal court and send them to the 17th and 18th judicial districts for prosecution starting July 1 sparked worries that some cases might get dropped because of inadequate resources.

But on Tuesday, county officials approved funding to pay for additional resources.

“We are ready. We are prepared to prosecute these cases and get justice for the victims,” 18th Judicial District Attorney Amy Padden told The Denver Gazette on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s Arapahoe County Board of Commissioners meeting.

Commissioners approved using funding from ballot measure 1A that allowed the county to “de-Bruce” for additional resources, specifically for handling the influx of Aurora domestic violence cases, Padden said.

Cases already being handled by the Aurora Municipal Court will stay there until they are completed, according to officials. Only new cases will go to county courts starting July 1.

Padden does not anticipate any “monumental change” on July 1 to her staff’s workload and function, she said, adding that it will likely take a month or two before they start to see a flow of Aurora cases and get a better grasp of the impact.

Saving Aurora money

The debate about shifting domestic violence cases out of Aurora Municipal Court and into county courts started with financial conversations about the city’s in-house Public Defender’s Office and whether or not the city could save money by contracting out for indigent defense services.

Aurora’s municipal court has been handling domestic violence cases since the court began, with reported increases in cases cited as part of the reason for the court’s creation. The rationale was that municipal courts could handle them more quickly than state or county courts, according to a 2021 review of Aurora’s public defense system by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association.

Domestic violence cases make up a large portion of the public defender’s office workload. The city prosecutes about 1,600 domestic violence cases each year, with a good portion of those going to trial with public defender representation, the review said.

Aurora’s public defenders handled more than 4,000 cases in total in 2023. With a public defender’s budget of $2.2 million, that comes out to $550 per case.

In 2023, city councilmembers debated back and forth about whether to begin contracting out for indigent defense, rather than using in-house public defenders. Aurora is one of only a few Denver area cities, including Denver, Lakewood and Westminster, that hires in-house public defenders.

Proponents of contracting out the work said it could save the city money, while opponents, including Aurora’s Chief Deputy Public Defender Elizabeth Cadiz, said contracted public defense would not meet the level of defense provided by an in-house public defender’s office.

After going back and forth for months on the matter, Aurora councilmembers decided to stop prosecuting domestic violence cases in municipal court altogether and hand them off to the 17th and 18th judicial districts.

Aurora’s Public Defender’s Office did not reply to multiple requests for comment on the future of its office as the shift date approaches.

Making the move

The 18th Judicial District will get the majority of the Aurora cases.

The district currently handles about 859 domestic violence misdemeanor cases every year, according to Aurora City Council documents. The Aurora Municipal Court had 2,404 open domestic violence cases as of July of last year, including 1,304 active warrants.

Shifting those cases to county courts is estimated to add 200 cases each year to the 17th Judicial District and about 1,300 cases each year to the 18th Judicial District, doubling the latter district’s annual caseload.

In January, 18th Judicial District officials voiced worries about having adequate resources to handle the influx of cases after they were denied state funding.

At a March Aurora City Council meeting, 18th Judicial District staff members asked councilmembers to delay the transition until July 1, 2026, or consider phasing in the transition over time.

According to a document put together in January by various court officials and county staff members, the influx — without additional resources — could mean officials are unable to meet the basic standards and legislative requirements of their work, such as responding to violations, conducting supervision appointments, communicating with victims and verifying treatment program progress.

“We have made our minds up. They have been given ample notice. There is zero wiggle room from me,” Councilmember Danielle Jurinsky said at the March meeting. “If they happen to get 1,200 cases at once … then they get 1,200 DV cases. That’s what it is.”

The council voted to move forward with the shift at the March meeting.

Worries for victims

Natasha Adler of Safehouse Denver, an organization that supports survivors of domestic violence, said she and many other victim advocates are worried about the impact of the shift, fearing it will result in negative consequences for victims.

Even after learning about the new resources allocated to the District Attorney’s Office, Adler said phasing in the shift would have been a better approach.

“The additional funding is a step in the right direction, but there are still thousands of cases to absorb and I think that will take time to adjust to,” Adler said.

Safehouse Denver has helped victims for 50 years, providing counseling, safety planning, crisis intervention, court assistance, prevention work and shelter services, among other services.

Adler and her team opposed shifting domestic violence cases from the Aurora Municipal Court, arguing victims will likely not get the assistance they need through the court process and cases will be drawn out much more than they already are.

Having an influx of cases will also give those in the justice system more motivation to do plea deals and “throw everything at probation,” which does not set up a system where victims are safe and perpetrators are held accountable, she said.

“It’s devastating on many different levels,” Adler said. “For victims, it’s so difficult to come forward and share what’s happened to them because there’s shame and stigma and fear of retaliation and increased violence. Survivors are already deterred from reporting.”

For organizations like Safehouse Denver, resources are already tight. Adler worries that if victims can’t rely on the court system to help them, they will turn to “other doors,” like her organization.

1A provides funding

Arapahoe County commissioners approved additional funding for the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office — thanks, officials said, to ballot measure 1A, which passed in November, allowing the county to “de-Bruce” under the Colorado Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights — that is, permit county officials to eliminate TABOR’s revenue limit and spend all taxes it has collected.

The phrase refers to the constitutional amendment’s author, Douglas Bruce.

“Now with these additional resources, we will continue to pursue every case that we can prove beyond a reasonable doubt,” Padden said.

Padden submitted a supplemental budget proposal to the commission in April and told The Denver Gazette Monday that the resources mean her office will be ready on July 1.

With the supplemental budget’s passage on Tuesday, the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office will get $328,000 for 10 full-time FTEs from the county’s general fund, according to county budget officials.

In total, departments and offices, including community services and the sheriff’s office, will get $614,830 for 14 FTEs to handle the shift.

The office will phase in new full-time employees, including two starting July 1.

Another $3 million will be moved to the capital expenditure fund for the buildout of a third courtroom in one of the courthouses for an additional judge in July of next year.

Currently, the District Attorney’s Office has 186 full-time staff members, including Padden.

Arapahoe County Commissioner Carrie Warren-Gully thanked county voters at Tuesday’s meeting for passing ballot measure 1A.

“We had some very large expenses here as you see regarding our District Attorney’s Office and the transfer of domestic violence cases that we will be receiving from the City of Aurora,” Warren-Gully said. “Had it not been for the people of Arapahoe County coming together and voting to pass 1A, I don’t know what we would’ve done. We would’ve been making some very large cuts in other areas to take on those cases.”

While the District Attorney’s Office got additional resources to handle the new cases, not every department did, Padden said.

“There are some challenges for the other players in the criminal justice system,” she said, pointing to the county’s public defenders.

Arapahoe County’s Public Defender’s Office is not getting additional resources. The Public Defender’s Office did not reply to The Denver Gazette’s multiple requests for comment.