A Proven Criminal Defense Team

It is important to keep up to date on changes in the law.

On Behalf of | Jul 27, 2009 | Current Topics in the News |

For example, it’s been the law in Colorado that if you have a felony drug conviction, including a felony deferred sentence to a drug charge that is reported to the Department of Motor Vehicles, then your driver’s license is suspended. This, of course, makes it very difficult to keep working to pay for treatment and court costs while serving a probationary sentence. As of August 5, 2009, that law is changing. H.B. 09-1266 has removed provisions of Colorado law that allowed for the revocation of driver’s licenses for criminal mischief offenses, felony drug offenses, and defacing property. The law was signed by the Governor on June 1, 2009. As losing a driver’s license will make successfully completing a probationary sentence much harder, this is a great change in the law. On a less positive note for Criminal Defendants, the governor also signed into law on June 1, 2009 H.B. 09-1132. This bill expands conduct that is covered under certain sex offense statutes. The main thrust of the new law is to add text messaging, instant messaging, and communications over telephone networks to the Internet Luring of Children, Internet Sexual Exploitation of Children, and Harassment crimes. Now, any text message that describes explicit sexual contact that is sent to someone the defendant believes to be under 15 together with a statement persuading or inviting the person to meet the defendant for any purpose becomes Internet Luring if the defendant is 4 years or older than the age the defendant believes the person to be. This reflects the expanding sexual offense laws in light of the changing technology. It’s not just the internet stings which criminal defendants face for possible prosecution, it can be just a text message to constitute Internet Luring or Internet Sexual Exploitation. This new revision to the law went into place on July 1, 2009 and applies to all offenses committed after that date.

While we hope you benefit from the information we posted above, it is important to note that we always suggest you contact an attorney to advise you and walk you through the legal process so that you can achieve the best possible result.

This blog was posted by Stephanie Rikeman, an associate attorney at Shazam Kianpour & Associates, P.C. You may contact her directly at our law firm at 720-407-2582 or online

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