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Felony Referrals

A felony referral to the District Attorney's (DA) Office occurs when law enforcement presents an individual suspected of a felony crime to review for potential charges, generally following an arrest. This section presents data on felony cases referred by law enforcement agencies to the DA’s Office for review. The DA’s Office decides whether to file charges – a formal accusation that a specific person has committed a specific crime – based on the evidence and reasonable likelihood of conviction.

Why is this important?  The DA’s Office makes decisions based on the cases they receive from law enforcement; they are not responsible for arresting or citing individuals. The office may decide not to file a case for a number of reasons, such as acceptance into a pre-charge diversion program, insufficient evidence/investigation by law enforcement, or when the charges did not rise to the level of a crime.


A significant portion of this decrease comes from changes the legislature passed through HB19-1263, which changed the level of offense for drug possession cases. This meant that many offenses which were previously a class 4 drug felony were reclassified as a misdemeanor. This change went into effect on March 1, 2020. That same month, Colorado began to experience the impacts of COVID-19 which dramatically impacted how citizens interacted, as well as law enforcement and court operations. While the overall number of felonies filed decreased, nearly all of this reduction occurred in the least serious felony offenses (F4, F5, F6, DF3, and DF4). The majority of the reduction occurred in DF4 case filings alone - the lowest level of drug felony, which became misdemeanor offenses. For our most serious offenses, the total number of filings remained consistent.



Indicators

Below are a set of indicators that provide additional context about felony referrals. These indicators help the DA's Office ensure they maximize government resources by making strategic decisions about which cases to accept for prosecution.


Our goal is to identify dismissible cases at the earliest point possible.

There are many reasons why a case may be dismissed after filing, including newly discovered evidence, the availability and cooperation of victims and witnesses, and the goals and desires of involved victims.


There are many reasons why a felony case may be resolved as a misdemeanor, including newly discovered evidence, the availability and cooperation of victims and witnesses, the goals and desires of involved victims, and the defendant's lack of criminal history or participation in rehabilitation prior to resolution of the case.

Notes:

  • Each referral is represented once. 
  • Warrants are excluded (for all cases identified as a warrant).
  • Misdemeanor cases are directly charged and filed by the law enforcement agency; the DA does not review these cases for charging. The DA’s Office can dismiss misdemeanor cases (see Case Resolution dashboard). 
  • Law enforcement arrests and charges are based on a probable cause standard of proof, whereas the DA’s Office charges are based on proof beyond a reasonable doubt.