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Gov. Jared Polis\u2019 decision to abruptly reduce the 110-year prison sentence for the truck driver who killed four people in a fiery 2019 crash is impacting other ongoing court cases, a bipartisan pair of Colorado district attorneys told the governor in a five-page letter that was highly critical of the commutation.<\/p>\n
Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty, a Democrat, and Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein, a Republican, called the commutation<\/a> \u201cunprecedented, premature and unwarranted\u201d in a Jan. 20 letter to Polis obtained by The Denver Post on Tuesday through an open records request.<\/p>\n The prosecutors said the governor\u2019s decision to reduce Rogel Aguilera-Mederos\u2019 110-year sentence<\/a> to 10 years while the trucker\u2019s case was still pending in the courts \u201cundercut the community\u2019s trust\u201d in the justice system and has impacted plea-bargain negotiations in some cases.<\/p>\n \u201cYour decision is having a substantial ripple effect,\u201d the district attorneys wrote.<\/p>\n In a recent Boulder County case, they said, prosecutors extended a plea offer of eight years in prison to a person who sexually assaulted a girl. The defense attorney in that case argued the sentence was excessive in light of Aguilera-Mederos\u2019 reduced prison term, the letter said.<\/p>\n \u201cSentences should be influenced by the facts and circumstances, not by petitions, online surveys or tweets,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n The two district attorneys sent the letter to Polis the day before the governor was scheduled to meet with the board of the Colorado District Attorneys\u2019 Council. The letter was intended to allow Polis to prepare to address their concerns, Dougherty said.<\/p>\n\n \u201cThe governor wanted to clear the air and acknowledged that his action was unprecedented,\u201d Dougherty said of the meeting. \u201cDA Rubinstein and I are optimistic that our concerns were understood and that what happened in that case was an exception.\u201d<\/p>\n Conor Cahill, a spokesman for Polis, called Aguilera-Mederos\u2019 110-year prison sentence \u201cbizarre\u201d and said Polis acted quickly because \u201cthere was clearly an urgency to remedy this sentence and restore confidence in the uniformity and fairness of our criminal justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Dougherty and Rubinstein said in the letter that the 110-year prison sentence was excessive, but argued that Polis should have waited for a judge to reduce his sentence \u2014 a process that was underway<\/a> \u2014 before acting.<\/p>\n Aguilera-Mederos\u2019 mandatory minimum sentence drew widespread outrage after it was imposed in December, with more than 5 million people signing an online petition that asked it be reduced.<\/p>\n Polis\u2019 decision to commute the sentence days before the judge overseeing Aguilera-Mederos\u2019 case was scheduled to consider reducing the prison term drew rebukes from the judge<\/a> and from family members of people who died in the April 25, 2019, crash on Interstate 70 in Lakewood.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n