Practice area
Assault and menacing defense
Whether a charge is filed as third degree assault or second degree assault usually turns on two words in a medical report.
Class 1 misdemeanor up to a class 3 felony, often as a crime of violence
What a assault case actually involves
Colorado grades assault by the injury and the means. Third degree assault is a class 1 misdemeanor and covers bodily injury caused knowingly or recklessly. Second degree is a class 3 or 4 felony and turns on serious bodily injury or the use of a deadly weapon. First degree is a class 3 felony carrying extreme indifference or serious bodily injury by deadly weapon.
The label matters more than usual here, because many assault counts are extraordinary risk crimes and several are per se crimes of violence under C.R.S. 18-1.3-406. A crime of violence designation means mandatory prison in the aggravated range. Removing that designation is often worth more to a client than shaving a year off a number.
Self defense is a genuine defense in Colorado, not a mitigating factor. Once it is properly raised, the prosecution has to disprove it beyond a reasonable doubt. Colorado also recognises the make my day statute for occupants of a dwelling under C.R.S. 18-1-704.5.
The counts that get filed
| Count | Level | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Third degree assault | Class 1 misdemeanor | Bodily injury, knowingly or recklessly. An extraordinary risk crime. |
| Second degree assault | Class 3 or 4 felony | Serious bodily injury, or injury with a deadly weapon. Often a crime of violence. |
| First degree assault | Class 3 felony | Serious bodily injury with a deadly weapon, or extreme indifference. |
| Menacing | Class 1 misdemeanor or class 5 felony | Becomes a felony when a deadly weapon is used or represented. |
| Harassment | Class 2 misdemeanor | Strikes, shoves, or repeated communication intended to harass. |
| Domestic violence sentence enhancer | Attaches to the underlying count | Not a charge on its own. It adds treatment, firearms consequences, and blocks a straight dismissal in many postures. |
Where these cases break
Not every one applies to every file. The first job is working out which two or three do.
Self defense
Reasonable belief of imminent unlawful force, and force proportionate to it. Once raised, the state must disprove it beyond a reasonable doubt.
Defense of others and of premises
Includes the Colorado occupant statute at C.R.S. 18-1-704.5, which is an immunity, not merely a defense.
Injury grading
Serious bodily injury has a statutory definition involving substantial risk of death, permanent disfigurement or protracted loss of function. Medical records frequently do not support it.
Mutual combat and provocation
Who was the initial aggressor is a fact question, and body worn camera and 911 audio often answer it differently from the report.
Identification
Bar fights, parking lots and low light. Show up identifications made under those conditions are unreliable and that is now well documented.
Recanting complainants
Handled carefully and lawfully, through the prosecution, never by contacting a protected party.
What happens, and when
Day one
Protection order terms reviewed line by line, because a violation is a new case.
Week one
Preservation of 911 audio, body worn camera, and any bystander video before it is overwritten.
Weeks two to eight
Independent medical review of the injury grading and an investigator on the scene witnesses.
Months three to seven
Motions, then negotiation aimed at the designation as much as the sentence, or trial.
The attorneys on these cases
The offer you get depends on what the other side thinks will happen if they have to try it.
What people ask us about this
If your question is not here, ask it on the call. There is no charge for the first conversation and it is with an attorney.
Start a case reviewIt does not end it automatically, but it can win it. Self defense is a full defense in Colorado and the burden of disproving it sits with the prosecution. The evidence that establishes it is usually video and independent witnesses, which is why preserving them in the first week matters.
No. The charging decision belongs to the district attorney. What a complaining witness says can influence that decision, but it is communicated through the prosecution, never by you, and never in breach of a protection order.
It attaches mandatory treatment, restricts the prosecutor's ability to dismiss without a factual basis on the record, and triggers a federal firearms prohibition on conviction. It changes the shape of the whole negotiation.
Under C.R.S. 18-1.3-406, certain counts carry mandatory prison in the aggravated range and consecutive sentencing. Getting a count pleaded without that designation is frequently the single most valuable outcome in a felony assault case.
If any of this is happening to you, the first conversation is free and it is with an attorney.
Contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship.