As a former Senior – Career Arapahoe – Douglas County District Attorney – in his13 years (1984 – 1997) years as a prosecutor – H. Michael was assigned to the prosecution of hundreds of juvenile prosecutions. As a Colorado Criminal Defense Lawyer for the last 16 years (1997 – 2013) – he has successfully handled hundreds more juvenile cases.
Juvenile criminal defense lawyers must be specialized in this area and must have specialized training and experience to be effective on behalf of their clients… essentially just children. Because Juvenile Court is different than adult court – an experienced lawyer in adult may be incompetent to practice in juvenile court.
Where your child’s freedom and future is at stake…go with experience every time.
Here is the statute referenced in the Article That Linked you to this page:
(1) Except as otherwise provided in section 19-2-601 for an aggravated juvenile offender and except as provided in subsection (2) of this section, the court may sentence the juvenile to alternative services funded through section 19-2-212 or other alternative services programs.
If a juvenile who is twelve years of age or older fails to make satisfactory progress in the alternative services to which he or she is sentenced or if the court finds that a sentence to alternative services would be contrary to the community interest, the court may sentence any juvenile adjudicated for an offense that would constitute a class 3, class 4, class 5, or class 6 felony or a misdemeanor if committed by an adult to detention for a period not to exceed forty-five days.
Release for purposes of work, therapy, education, or other good cause may be granted by the court. The court may not sentence to detention any juvenile adjudicated for an offense that would constitute a class 1 or class 2 felony if committed by an adult.
(2) In the case of a juvenile who has been adjudicated a juvenile delinquent for the commission of one of the offenses described in section 19-2-508 (3) (a) (III), the court shall sentence the juvenile to a minimum mandatory period of detention of not fewer than five days.