Colorado Criminal Lawyer BlogColorado Sentencing & Probation
How to Get a Sentence to Unsupervised “Bench” Probation Instead of Supervised Probation Under Colorado Law
By H. Michael Steinberg | Denver Criminal Defense Attorney | November 6, 2026
H. Michael Steinberg has 42+ years of experience practicing Colorado criminal law. Mr. Steinberg strives to stay current with the ever changing aspects of criminal law issues and updates resulting in his extensive knowledge of successful criminal defense as well as appellate work. He is also an active member of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar Association, the Colorado Trial Lawyer's Association, and the Colorado and Arapahoe Bar Associations.
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Colorado | C.R.S. § 18-6-701 Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor Law: First-Degree Class 4 Felony and Second-Degree Class 1 Misdemeanor Charges
Colorado prosecutors do not need the child to be the one who gets caught. Under C.R.S. § 18-6-701, any person who induces, aids, or encourages someone under 18 to violate the law can be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Since March 1, 2022, that charge comes in two levels: first degree, a class 4 felony, and second degree, a class 1 misdemeanor. Which one you face depends largely on what the child was allegedly encouraged to do.
This guide explains how Colorado’s contributing statute works after the 2022 reform, what the prosecution must prove, the sentencing ranges, the consequences that follow a conviction, and the defenses a Colorado criminal defense lawyer looks at first.
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Domestic Violence Convictions and Your Second Amendment Rights in Colorado
By H. Michael Steinberg, Colorado Criminal Defense Attorney | November 3, 2026 | Domestic Violence
A domestic violence case in Colorado is never only about the charge. It can also put your firearms, your hunting and sport-shooting life, and in some careers your livelihood at risk. The gun consequences can begin with a protection order on day one and, after certain convictions, can last for life under federal law.
With more than forty years of Colorado criminal law and defense experience, I see clients every year who learn about the firearm consequences only after a plea has been entered.
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How a Colorado Trial Lawyer Prepares for Difficult Cases
Colorado Criminal Defense
Inside the investigation, discovery review, motions practice, and jury strategy that go into defending a serious criminal case in Colorado.
By the Law Office of H. Michael Steinberg | Denver Criminal Defense Attorney | October 31, 2026
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A Guide to White Collar Defense in Colorado
White collar cases rarely begin with handcuffs. They begin with a records request, an auditor’s question, a bank’s suspicious activity report, or a friendly call from an agent who says they just want to “clear a few things up.” By the time a charge is filed in Denver District Court or the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, investigators have often spent months or years assembling the documents, emails and bank statements that tell a story about what you supposedly knew and intended.
This guide explains how white collar defense in Colorado works: the state and federal crimes charged most often, how penalties are measured, who investigates, how long prosecutors have to file, and the defenses that matter most. It is written for business owners, executives, bookkeepers, healthcare providers, investment professionals, and anyone who has just learned they are the subject of an inquiry.
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Colorado Marijuana vs. Alcohol DUI: Testing and Evidence
Colorado Marijuana vs. Alcohol DUIs
A Colorado DUI is a DUI whether the allegation involves a beer, a “joint,” a prescription pill or a mix. But the proof looks very different. An alcohol case usually turns on a breath or blood number measured against a bright-line 0.08 limit. A marijuana case has no bright line at all: prosecutors lean on a blood THC level, an officer’s observations and, often, a Drug Recognition Expert’s opinion, and each of those can be questioned in ways an alcohol case cannot.
I am H. Michael Steinberg, a Denver criminal defense attorney with more than 40 years of experience. This guide walks through how Colorado law treats alcohol and marijuana DUIs, how the testing works, what the evidence really shows, and where a defense typically begins. It reflects Colorado law and agency sources as of October 27, 2026.
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How to Challenge The Good-Faith Exception After a Home Raid
Quick Answer
To challenge a search warrant in Colorado after a home raid, your attorney first obtains the warrant, the sworn affidavit, and the return, then files a motion to suppress and for return of property under Crim. P. 41(e). The motion can attack probable cause, particularity, the way the warrant was executed, or false statements in the affidavit. If the court agrees, the evidence and its fruits are excluded unless the prosecution proves the good-faith exception applies. The sooner a defense lawyer reviews the paperwork, the more options you keep.
Officers arrive early in the morning. Someone hands you a stack of papers, and for the next several hours strangers go through your bedroom, your closets, your phone, and your files. Whether the raid involved drugs, a fraud investigation, a sex-crime allegation, or something else, the warrant is the government’s permission slip. If that permission slip was defective, the evidence officers carried out of your home may never reach a jury.
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If I Contact a Witness or Victim, Is That Witness Tampering in Colorado? (C.R.S. 18-8-707)
Quick Answer
No, not automatically. Contacting a witness or victim is not, by itself, witness tampering. Under C.R.S. § 18-8-707, the prosecution must prove that you intentionally attempted to induce the person to testify falsely, withhold testimony, skip a proceeding they were legally summoned to, or avoid a summons, and that you did it without a bribe or threat. The crime is a class 4 felony.
But the contact can still be a serious problem. A mandatory protection order or a bond condition may forbid all contact, so a harmless text can be charged as a separate crime. And what you say matters. Asking a witness to “drop the charges” or “not show up” is exactly the conduct prosecutors charge.
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What Counts as a Colorado DUI Probation Violation?
Probation after a Colorado DUI is a deal. You avoid more jail, and in exchange you follow a long list of rules. When a client calls me and says, “I think I may have violated my probation,” the first thing I do is sort what happened into the right category.
Some problems are fixable with a phone call and a receipt. Others put your probation, and your freedom, at real risk.
This article explains what the law treats as a DUI probation violation, how the court handles it, and what is actually on the table if the court finds one. The core rules live in C.R.S. 42-4-1307 for DUI sentencing and in C.R.S. 16-11-205 and 16-11-206 for revocation.
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Preliminary Hearings in Colorado: the Probable Cause Standard – Why “Prelims” May Be Underused
By Colorado Criminal Defense Lawyer H. Michael Steinberg | October 20, 2026
When a felony charge lands, the first instinct for many defendants is to get it over with. In Colorado, one of the earliest decisions in a felony case is whether to demand a preliminary hearing, a short courtroom proceeding where a judge decides whether the prosecution has enough evidence to justify moving the case forward. In our experience, roughly nineteen out of twenty are waived. That is often the right call, but it should be a decision, not a default.
This guide explains what a Colorado preliminary hearing is, the probable cause standard judges apply, when a person charged in Colorado is entitled to a preliminary hearing, the short deadline to ask for one, and the practical ways a “prelim” can help a defendant even when the case is not dismissed. This article reflects Colorado’s statutes, court rules, and decisions current as of October 20, 2026.