An Adams County judge last week agreed a grand jury had probable cause of a crime when indicting five Aurora police officers and paramedics for manslaughter and other charges stemming from the 2019 death of Elijah McClain.

Officers Randy Roedema, Jason Rosenblatt and Nathan Woodyard, and paramedics Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper challenged their September 2021 criminal indictments. Colorado law permits defendants to raise the question of probable cause to a court even after a grand jury makes its decision.

District Court Judge Priscilla Loew, after reviewing materials from the grand jury proceedings, found sufficient evidence of a crime for all five men. 

Cooper had additionally asked her to delay the probable cause decision in anticipation of receiving additional grand jury materials and filing motions challenging the instructions given to the grand jury. Loew declined to wait, explaining any further requests from Cooper would not affect her probable cause analysis.

“The Court does not believe waiting for an indefinite amount of time is judicially efficient and raises application of the Victim Rights Act,” she wrote in a series of orders on July 18.

McClain died in the hospital on Aug. 30, 2019, days after police officers forcibly restrained him and paramedics injected him with 500 milligrams of the sedative ketamine. McClain was not suspected of any crime at the time of his police encounter.

The 17th Judicial District Attorney’s Office declined to bring charges against the government employees, but Attorney General Phil Weiser initiated grand jury proceedings last year. McClain’s death, coupled with international racial justice protests following the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd, prompted Colorado lawmakers to pass comprehensive policing reform legislation in the summer of 2020.