PT2M40S
“Now, in Colorado, our Colorado legislature made strangulation an actual class four felony, because they deemed this to be a much more serious crime and something that caused a higher risk of harm or death to another person.”
“So for strangulation to be actually charged under the Criminal Code, there has to be that underlying assault. But then the act that is done has to be an act. Sometimes people say choking, but it's actually strangling putting your hands around another person or causing something to cut off airflow to another person.”
“Now, in a true strangulation case, this has a very high risk of mortality. Because as we all know, the human body can only survive in a very short amount of time without air.”
“The problem that we see is in Colorado, often strangulation is charged at the mere mention of someone's neck being hurt.”
“The problem from a criminal defense perspective that we see is oftentimes the police can ask questions and ask things saying, well, so Did you feel any anything touch your neck at all, if a neck is mentioned at all, a lot of the times law enforcement will jump in and charge that as a strangulation. But it's not true to the strangulation that was initially the impetus for charging it as a felony under the Colorado legislative.”
“What's crucially important is that if you find yourself unfortunately charged with a strangulation, you need to have a criminal defense attorney that can dig in and determine whether it is actually rising to that level of strangulation to warrant a felony charge. Or whether this is a third degree assault or even a harassment that was wrongly charged because someone gave a keyword like neck.”
“Now, any domestic violence charge in Colorado is very serious, you do need to get help. But having that added level of felony charge on top of your already existing domestic violence case, can be incredibly detrimental to your life and your future.”
“Now, in Colorado, our Colorado legislature made strangulation an actual class four felony, because they deemed this to be a much more serious crime and something that caused a higher risk of harm or death to another person.”
“So for strangulation to be actually charged under the Criminal Code, there has to be that underlying assault.”
“you need to make sure you have a criminal defense attorney that can parse out what was actually supposed to be charged so that you actually have the justice and the opportunity to fight the charges that you should have been charged with not someone saying well, my neck was involved in some way so automatically, you're facing a felony charge.”
“The problem that we see is in Colorado, often strangulation is charged at the mere mention of someone's neck being hurt.”
“The problem is, anytime someone says choking, put their hands around my neck or anything near their neck, a lot of the times law enforcement will see strangulation rather than an assault.”