"It is my belief that the 18th Judicial District has punished me because I had the audacity to challenge the charge," he writes from the Bent County Correctional Facility. "I refused to be bullied into a ten-year prison sentence by a malicious and vengeful prosecutor...[so] I am doing more time than most violent offenders, rapists, child molesters and even some murderers."
In a memo to her chief deputy shortly after she took office, Chambers urged her staff to take as many habitual-criminal cases to trial as possible: "Please keep the offers on these cases tough and encourage them to go to trial." But quite the opposite has happened. Habitual-criminal cases go to trial in the 18th even less frequently than they do elsewhere in Colorado. Statewide, the charge is dismissed 90 percent of the time, once a plea agreement is reached; in the Land of the Bitch, the figure is 95 percent. In other words, it's being used primarily as a club to obtain guilty pleas and prison sentences that often exceed the maximum sentence for the underlying crime.
Chambers says it's simply a matter of "resource limitations" that so many of the habitual cases result in plea deals. "No matter how we use habitual-offender counts, we are accused of being coercive or retaliatory," she says. "I leave the issue of what cases should go to trial up to the deputy DAs. There are many other cases that, for various reasons, should go to trial. There are a very limited number of trial weeks available in our courtrooms."
Prosecutors in other districts cut deals on habitual-criminal cases, too, of course — just not as frequently. "The threat of filing the bitch should not be used as a plea-bargaining measure, and it isn't here," says Boulder DA Garnett. "Frankly, the defense bar in Boulder County takes about whatever we offer on any case, so the last thing I'm looking for on a serious case is plea-bargaining leverage."
But then Garnett — like most of his colleagues — isn't as determined as Chambers is to bitch drug users and halfway-house walkaways. Those groups of felons are particularly low-hanging fruit, defense attorneys point out; if you're a drug addict or you're in a halfway house, chances are you already have two or three felonies on your record, which means you're only one more screw-up away from the bitch, if local prosecutors are inclined to file it.
Chambers believes that filing habitual criminal charges on escape cases has discouraged people from absconding from community corrections facilities in her district, and the filing rate supports that position. Arapahoe County prosecutors filed 171 escape cases in 2005 but only 123 in 2009. The number went back up to 150 in the last fiscal year; the district attorney says she isn't sure if that spike indicates a trend or an aberration. She worries that a recent drop in the average sentence reached in escape incidents, from ten-to-twelve years to six or seven, "may have lessened the deterrent effect" of filing bitch charges in such cases.
The supposed upside of increasing use of the habitual criminal statute is that it can result in swifter plea agreements and a more efficient system — in theory. Chambers and defense attorneys disagree about whether that's happening in the 18th. Only a handful of the habitual cases actually end up going to trial, but that doesn't mean anyone is eager to take a double-digit prison term without numerous delays.
"It becomes a game of chicken," says O'Connor. "You can't take the deal at arraignment when it's some 28-year-old guy being offered 24 years on a non-violent crime. The judge gets tired of setting it over, so he sets it for trial — and you still can't take the deal. Sometimes they reduce the offer a little bit. Sometimes the defendant caves. Sometimes you get an offer right before trial that you should have gotten months before, which would have saved a lot of time and expense. You get that offer a lot sooner in other counties. Yet they can't all go to trial."
Chambers says she's investigated O'Connor's claim that habitual cases are bogging down the system and found no evidence to support it. "I asked our staff whether they were seeing more delays than in other cases," she notes, "and they said no, the habitual-offender cases actually move through the system faster."
******
In July, three weeks before his stalking case was scheduled to go to trial, Pauls received a final offer from Arapahoe County Deputy District Attorney Jacob Edson. The habitual charge would be dropped if Pauls pleaded guilty to Class Five felony stalking; the maximum sentence the judge could give him would be four years.
By the standards of the 18th, it was a hell of a deal. With credit for the twelve months he'd served in jail awaiting trial, Pauls would probably be in prison no longer than another eighteen months. If he went to trial instead, he risked being judged a habitual criminal and sent away for 24 years.
But by this point the case had become a matter of extreme principle to Pauls. He'd been reading Dostoyevsky in jail and felt he was on a mission to expose a grave injustice. He was determined to represent himself — attorney Natalie Chase served as his court-appointed advisor — and persuade a jury that his intentions and his actions had been innocuous.
I have fallen victim to Chambers office. They literally made up charges that weren't there and attempted, with vigor to destroy my family, even attempting to coerce my children to lie. I have never come across anything like this. They are bullies and dishonest. Chamber's also pays bonuses to her team for successful convictions it's disgusting. I thought this kind of kangeroo system of justice was abolished in Germany in 1945. Obviously not.
This lady is so corupt not even funny, and all her boys that follow. This is nothing more than organized crime with badges to protect them from getting charged, and to bully citizens around, trying to make as many puppets as possible.
The 18th is a cash grab district, plain and simple.
Trust me when I say this as a once 19 year old kid that was set up, literally entrapped as I would learn as I grew older and wiser, charged with a class 4 felony for selling a nickle bag of shwag to an undercover police officer who pressed me into giving him my last j. My first and second answers were, no. He then offered 10 dollars. Who knew I was ahead of the MMJ scene in 1993?
My "public defender; despite a perfect, unblemished juvenile and adult record, recommended a "plea", which I trustingly accepted. The irony: I was working at the Patrick J Sullivan Justice Center under said Sheriff at the time. Guess I should have had some Meth friends and liked gay sex, huh?
Was it because my last name has a tilde? Like to think not.
The concept of justice is lost in the wheeling and dealing, in which lose-lose scenarios play out continuously. In the end, we as a society will be judged by our laws, and I call on the educated amongst us to take action.
This is now beyond just Carol Chambers, the over-zealous Witch of the West, and it is now an indictment on all who have the power of the vote in that district.
Not one nickle of my paycheck will be diverted to contributing to this farce.
I, as one, will refuse to patronize any business in that district until Carol Chambers is ousted and policies are in line with those of other counties and, I don't know, JUSTICE. You do realize she incentivizes her prosecutors with bonuses based on conviction rates, right? Might as well get my # tattoo and board my train for my special shower.
I vote every day with the dollar I choose to spend or not spend.
Last January Bob's Towing filed with the state to take my car after it was towed during a traffic stop in Englewood. Why? No license, registration, or proof of insurance for me, and I refused to pay the tow fees or any dollars brought about by the charges. 5 days in jail? Fine. Keep me. House me. Feed me. Keep the car, Bob. I will NEVER give one dollar to that district. Not one.
My professional life never developed via traditional means, and I continue to be labeled some 18 years later. While I did enjoy 7 years as a Cherry Creek educator, the incident still burns.
Now that the world is watching the district with tabloid interest, let us dial that lense in further.
Something is rotten, and a foul stench creeps from the land off Potomac Avenue.
NOT ONE NICKLE. NOT ONE.
Some cops are being helped by the courts to lie about trafic stops and when it comes to court the police is clearly wrong and the judge , alows the cop to make up a story and never care about the real truth about the case. and make a non felon case a felon case so a person has to plead guilty to not have a felony record , And then the court finds out it was wrong on its report and still makes the person feel he had to plead guilty to a fake doctors priscription intoxacation that was being taken for 30 years , and all the laws were fallowed, except for a cop who made a disabled parking permit person do surbrity tests without his weel chair, or cruches , this is got out of hand for the few cops who make the courts and police look like 3rd world abusive cops.
this is just another example of one of many systemic evilspeople in power can run their agendas freely without being checkedits great to learn some of what is involved but what you cant see is everything that is hidden in' books and records- the system' so no one can see the real monetary motivation behind this broken system. it might be hurting tax payers and citizens, but it is benefiting some minority, you can be sure of that
This district attorney will reap what she sow's, and one day one of her familly members will be in a similar situation, and then she will know how much sadness, heartache, and misery she has caused! only because of her power trip! She's a waste of space, and she should be disbared, and God will judge her when her time comes! Shame on her? just a power trip. i bet that she cant even keep her own household in line... shes misrable!
“As the Defendant, I, Dennis Pauls, would like to make a brief response to you Gil and Ajfnolan, for your comments. It took me several months of staring at the ceiling in that jail cell to wrestle thru the same thought processes. All of the players in my case were indeed purely doing their jobs. My biggest problem was that Judge Volz, whom I highly respect, had no power to do much other than monitor the proceedings. It IS a legislative issue at its core. Prosecutors are SUPPOSED to try and prosecute. That is their job. But when a Judge has no authority to serve in their needed role, there is no "balance" in the "check-and-balance" system. It is the current legislation that is the underlying problem.”
And I would agree with you Mr. Pauls. I applaud your bravery for taking the risk and standing up for what you believe was right. The state's DA's have asked for statutes that in many cases there is no legitmate defense against. Any law that does permit it to be questioned in court is a bad law. These changes in statutues in many cases serve no further pupose than to coerce guilty pleas out of defendants, avoid trials and boost the DA's conviction record. This is all about politics and nothing about justice. The citizens of this state should be made aware of this before misunderstandings of these laws victimize even more people. Anyone could fall prey to this and face this kind of nightmare.
The judges have NO discretion where there is a habitual criminal conviction. The sentencing is set by statute. As a criminal defense lawyer in Colorado, I've seen judges literally apologize to defendants whom they were legally required to send away for decades under the habitual crimnal laws. Carol Chambers and all of her prosecutards need to go.
What are the judges in Arapahoe county doing about this? She can file all she wants, it's the judges that decide the ultimate sentencing and if they see abuse they have the power to reprehend her and her staff for over-reaching.Don't accept plea bargains and make them go to trial if the plea bargain is unfair. That's the defendants fault for settling.
How much will Carol "Pay for Convictions, Justice Can Wait" Chambers pony up to put Pat Sullivan away for a few years? I bet he doesn't serve a sixteenth of a bitch!
I am glad to see someone reporting on what is going on in Arapahoe. How can these policies continue?
This from a prosecutor that pays for convictions. Wonder how much $$ she has invested in the privately run prisons in Colorado, particularly her own district? Regardless, when I saw the title, I thought it was a Carol Chambers biography!
I'd like to publish some of the comments posted here in our print Letters to the editor section.
If you're willing to let your comment be published with your full name, or would like to submit a different version for publication, e-mail me at patricia.calhoun@westword.com.
I would love to hear Mrs. Paul's version of events since I only heard the played down version from a previously convicted felon. I applaud Carol for going out and sticking it to bad guys. Just because you are out commiting "non-violent" crimes doesn't mean that there aren't any victims to these crimes. I don't want to hear that drugs are a victimless crime...because the majority of robberies and burglaries that occur are because some dopehead needs money or things to buy more drugs or pay off debts! Robberies and burglaries all have victims. Good for Carol...I think more DA's need to have the stones to go after all these people that continue to commit crimes. Apparently the rehabilitation process didn't work after the first two or three felony convictions/stays in jail or prison. The hell with them...lock them up! If you don't want to go to jail or prison...stop committing crimes. Sounds simple to me!
Your definition of a "bad guy" is certainly very different than mine, Shocker. I have sympathy for those who fall victim to their addictions. I also have sympathy for those who become the victims of an addict's detrimental actions. However, our current judicial system does not serve up a heaping plate of rehabilitation, so pointing to an imaginary fix doesn't make logical sense. This story -- a story of bullying, over-inflation, crusading, and system-draining enrages me. The "bad guy" here is Carol Chambers, and I would like to see this approach to non-violent crimes stop.
Locking someone up for a crime like this ISN'T "rehabilitation" It's a complete abuse, and misuse of the system for political gain!
No prosecutor ever got elected on the platform that he or she was soft on crime. There's very little downside for a prosecutor to act like this, and possibly some upside by trumpeting how "tough" she is on crime.
I was on a jury that found one not guilty of violating restraining order for we could not figure out what he had done.
I would believe that Chambers cheats on her income tax return. she wasted our tax dollars,
48 years vs time served! amazing
Our justice system at its finest. This is an all to common occurrence in todays court rooms. Big headed DA's that are trying to make a name for them self by being "tough" on all crime. Paul did what a dim witted DA like this hates most, hold out for the jury. In a case that was so simple as this, a jury would never agree with the prosecutors, and rightfully like any person with a brain would do. I give Paul two thumbs up for standing up to such d-bags in our justice system. By not falling for their scare tactics you won Paul. The next win for you will be when you dont have to pay the extradition cost. The Arap-a-holes DAs office decided to pick you up for something so petty, they will be footing the bill. Hopefully Chambers will be in Paul's position shortly and realize just how pathetic her office is.........
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Ryan,In some jurisdictions a DUI is automatically a felony if it's a second or third offense, even if it didn't result in injury.
She pays her attorney's for conviction. Convict at any cost !
So glad this fascist is going to be out of the public eye and spending more time cruising on her hog and making trips to Sturgis.
These Prosecutors don't give a shit about justice! Just the fucking numbers! What a waste of resources, and a HORRIBLE way to ruin a life! Phuck Arapaho county DA!
Disgusting, this bitch roils my blood, she has ruined and taken lives, and someone should take hers as well,an eye for an eye.....I grew up in the juvenile detention system and was smart enough to not wind up in prison, but the system is set up to make people fail, and private industry (prisons, guards, etc...) is directly involved in public justice, their corporate interests and power plays like the DA's feed a broken system that heals no one and increases crime rather than rehabilitating.
