Assault Defense Lawyers in Colorado Springs

Colorado grades assault by three things: how badly someone was hurt, whether a deadly weapon was involved, and what the person accused intended. The same incident can be charged as a misdemeanor or a serious felony depending on how the prosecution reads those facts, so the charge on the first paperwork is often where the defense starts.

The degrees of assault

Third degree assault, knowingly or recklessly causing bodily injury, is a class 1 misdemeanor. It is the most common assault charge and covers most fights.

Second degree assault is generally a class 4 felony. It includes intentionally causing bodily injury with a deadly weapon, recklessly causing serious bodily injury with one, and injuring a police officer, firefighter, or emergency worker to stop them doing their job.

First degree assault is a class 3 felony. It generally requires intent to cause serious bodily injury with a deadly weapon, or conduct showing extreme indifference to human life. It is sentenced as a crime of violence, which means prison of at least the middle of the range and up to twice its maximum.

Both felony degrees carry a lower class when the act happened in a sudden heat of passion caused by a serious provocation. That can be the most important fact in the case.

Serious bodily injury and deadly weapons

Two legal terms decide most felony assault cases. Serious bodily injury means more than pain or bruising: a substantial risk of death, of serious permanent disfigurement, or of lasting impairment of a body part, or a broken bone, a penetrating knife or gunshot wound, or a second or third degree burn. A deadly weapon is any firearm, loaded or not, or anything used in a way capable of causing death or serious bodily injury, including a bottle, a boot, or a vehicle. Whether the medical records support serious bodily injury, and whether an object was really used as a weapon, are often the questions that move a case down a degree.

Menacing and harassment

Menacing is knowingly placing someone in fear of imminent serious bodily injury, by threat or by action. It is a class 1 misdemeanor, and a class 5 felony when it involves a real or simulated firearm, knife, or bludgeon. No one has to be touched, and no weapon has to be fired or even loaded.

Harassment covers striking, shoving, or kicking someone, repeated unwanted communication, and similar conduct done to harass, annoy, or alarm. It ranges from a petty offense to a class 1 misdemeanor depending on the conduct.

Self-defense

Colorado law allows reasonable force against what you reasonably believe is the use or imminent use of unlawful force against you or someone else. Deadly force is allowed only in narrower circumstances. Once there is some credible evidence of self-defense, the prosecution has to disprove it beyond a reasonable doubt. Witnesses, video, and the injuries on both sides decide whether the claim holds.

How we handle assault cases

We get the medical records, the scene video, and every witness statement, and we test the two things that set the charge: the injury and the weapon. We look for self-defense and for provocation early, because both change the case. Where the charge overstates what happened, we press to reduce it. A domestic relationship adds its own rules; see domestic violence.