Domestic Violence is a sentence enhancer in Fort Collins and Larimer County that can be added to ANY crime when the alleged victim and the accused have been or are in an intimate relationship. This means Domestic Violence itself is not a felony or misdemeanor. The underlying crime determines the charge level and then the DV sentence enhancer is added. Commonly, when there is a domestic issue, it occurs when the children are around. Now, whether they are involved or not, their presence can result in additional Child Abuse charges. For example, let’s say you were arguing with your wife in your living room and the kids were sitting on the couch watching TV. The argument gets heated, and you end up throwing the TV remote and it breaks. Neighbors call the police to report the fighting and when police arrive, they ask what happened. Because you are married, the remote would be considered joint property and you breaking it means that you damaged joint property – meaning you get charged with Criminal Mischief as an act of Domestic Violence. Then, because your kids were present when you broke the remote, you get an added count of Child Abuse, one counts for each of your kids.
Larimer County Domestic Violence and Child Abuse Defense Attorney
The hard part about hearing the phrase ‘Domestic Violence’ or ‘Child Abuse’ is that there is an automatic assumption that the person is physically violent. But, as you can see with the example above, there doesn’t have to be any physical contact to get charged with Domestic Violence and Child Abuse. Under these circumstances, the Child Abuse would be a class 2 misdemeanor (the lowest level misdemeanor), however, a recently added subsection to the Child Abuse statute states:
(IV) The defendant committed a continued pattern of acts of domestic violence, as that term is defined in section 18-6-800.3, in the presence of the child
So, if this had been the second time you got charged with Domestic Violence and Child Abuse, then you would likely be facing a class five felony. Just for some perspective – a class 2 misdemeanor is punishable by up to 120 days in the Larimer County Jail, whereas the class 5 felony is punishable by 1 to 3 years in the Colorado Department of Corrections. Seems like a harsh jump in punishment for the same action.