Title 18. Criminal Code. Article 6. Offenses Involving The Family Relations. Part 8. Domestic Violence.
§ 18-6-800.3. Definitions
Title 13. Courts and Court Procedure. Civil Protection Orders. Article 14. Civil Protection Orders
§ 13-14-101. Definitions
§ 13-14-103. Emergency protection orders
Title 18. Criminal Code. Article 6. Offenses Involving The Family Relations. Part 8. Domestic Violence.
As used in this part 8, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1) "Domestic violence" means an act or threatened act of violence upon a person with whom the actor is or has been involved in an intimate relationship. "Domestic violence" also includes any other crime against a person, or against property, including an animal, or any municipal ordinance violation against a person, or against property, including an animal, when used as a method of coercion, control, punishment, intimidation, or revenge directed against a person with whom the actor is or has been involved in an intimate relationship.
(2) "Intimate relationship" means a relationship between spouses, former spouses, past or present unmarried couples, or persons who are both the parents of the same child regardless of whether the persons have been married or have lived together at any time.
CREDIT(S)
Added by Laws 1989, H.B.1124, § 1. Amended by Laws 1994, H.B.94-1253, § 1, eff. July 1, 1994; Laws 1994, S.B.94-51, § 1, eff. June 3, 1994; Laws 1995, H.B.95-1179, § 1, eff. July 1, 1995; Laws 2007, Ch. 197, § 7, eff. July 1, 2007.
Title 13. Courts and Court Procedure. Civil Protection Orders. Article 14. Civil Protection Orders
For purposes of this article 14, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1) “Abuse of the elderly or of an at-risk adult” means mistreatment of a person who is sixty years of age or older or who is an at-risk adult as defined in section 26-3.1-101(1.5), including but not limited to repeated acts that:
(a) Constitute verbal threats or assaults;
(b) Constitute verbal harassment;
(c) Result in the inappropriate use or the threat of inappropriate use of medications;
(d) Result in the inappropriate use of physical or chemical restraints;
(e) Result in the misuse of power or authority granted to a person through a power of attorney or by a court in a guardianship or conservatorship proceeding that results in unreasonable confinement or restriction of liberty; or
(f) Constitute threats or acts of violence against, or the taking, transferring, concealing, harming, or disposing of, an animal owned, possessed, leased, kept, or held by the elderly or at-risk adult, which threats or acts are intended to coerce, control, punish, intimidate, or exact revenge upon the elderly or at-risk adult.
(1.5) “Adult” means a person eighteen years of age or older.
(1.7) “Contact” or “contacting” means any interaction or communication with another person, directly or indirectly through a third party, and electronic and digital forms of communication, including but not limited to interaction or communication through social media.
(2) “Domestic abuse” means any act, attempted act, or threatened act of violence, stalking, harassment, or coercion that is committed by any person against another person to whom the actor is currently or was formerly related, or with whom the actor is living or has lived in the same domicile, or with whom the actor is involved or has been involved in an intimate relationship. A sexual relationship may be an indicator of an intimate relationship but is never a necessary condition for finding an intimate relationship. For purposes of this subsection (2), “coercion” includes compelling a person by force, threat of force, or intimidation to engage in conduct from which the person has the right or privilege to abstain, or to abstain from conduct in which the person has a right or privilege to engage. “Domestic abuse” may also include any act, attempted act, or threatened act of violence against:
(a) The minor children of either of the parties; or
(b) An animal owned, possessed, leased, kept, or held by either of the parties or by a minor child of either of the parties, which threat, act, or attempted act is intended to coerce, control, punish, intimidate, or exact revenge upon either of the parties or a minor child of either of the parties.
(2.2) “Minor child” means a person under eighteen years of age.
(2.3) “Protected person” means the person or persons identified in a protection order as the person or persons for whose benefit the protection order was issued.
(2.4)(a) “Protection order” means any order that prohibits the restrained person from contacting, harassing, injuring, intimidating, molesting, threatening, touching, stalking, or sexually assaulting or abusing any protected person or from entering or remaining on premises, or from coming within a specified distance of a protected person or premises, or from taking, transferring, concealing, harming, disposing of or threatening harm to an animal owned, possessed, leased, kept, or held by a protected person, or any other provision to protect the protected person from imminent danger to life or health that is issued by a court of this state or a municipal court and that is issued pursuant to:
(I) This article 14, section 18-1-1001, 19-2.5-607, or 19-4-111, or rule 365 of the Colorado rules of county court civil procedure;
(II) Sections 14-4-101 to 14-4-105, C.R.S., section 14-10-107, C.R.S., section 14-10-108, C.R.S., or section 19-3-316, C.R.S., as those sections existed prior to July 1, 2004;
(III) An order issued as part of the proceedings concerning a criminal municipal ordinance violation; or
(IV) Any other order of a court that prohibits a person from contacting, harassing, injuring, intimidating, molesting, threatening, touching, stalking, or sexually assaulting or abusing a person, or from entering or remaining on premises, or from coming within a specified distance of a protected person or premises, or from taking, transferring, concealing, harming, disposing of or threatening to harm an animal owned, possessed, leased, kept, or held by a person, or from entering or remaining on premises, or from coming within a specified distance of a protected person or premises.
(b) For purposes of this article only, “protection order” includes any order that amends, modifies, supplements, or supersedes the initial protection order. “Protection order” also includes any emergency protection order, as described in section 13-14-103, any restraining order entered prior to July 1, 2003, and any foreign protection order as defined in section 13-14-110.
(2.8) “Restrained person” means a person identified in a protection order as a person prohibited from doing a specified act or acts.
(2.9) “Sexual assault or abuse” means any act, attempted act, or threatened act of unlawful sexual behavior, as described in section 16-11.7-102(3), C.R.S., by any person against another person regardless of the relationship between the actor and the petitioner.
(3) “Stalking” means any act, attempted act, or threatened act of stalking as described in section 18-3-602, C.R.S.
Credits
Added by Laws 1999, Ch. 157, § 1, eff. July 1, 1999. Amended by Laws 2000, Ch. 229, § 3, eff. July 1, 2000; Laws 2003, Ch. 139, § 1, eff. July 1, 2003; Laws 2004, Ch. 178, § 1, eff. July 1, 2004; Laws 2010, Ch. 78, § 1, eff. July 1, 2010; Laws 2010, Ch. 88, § 3, eff. Aug. 11, 2010; Laws 2013, Ch. 218, § 6, eff. July 1, 2013; Laws 2020, Ch. 265 (H.B. 20-1302), § 7, eff. Sept. 14, 2020; Laws 2021, Ch. 136, § 13, eff. Oct. 1, 2021.
§ 13-14-103. Emergency protection orders
(1)(a) Any county or district court shall have the authority to enter an emergency protection order pursuant to the provisions of this subsection (1).
(b) An emergency protection order issued pursuant to this subsection (1) may include:
(I) Restraining a party from contacting, harassing, injuring, intimidating, threatening, molesting, touching, stalking, sexually assaulting or abusing any other party, a minor child of either of the parties, or a minor child who is in danger in the reasonably foreseeable future of being a victim of an unlawful sexual offense or domestic abuse;
(II) Excluding a party from the family home or from the home of another party upon a showing that physical or emotional harm would otherwise result;
(III) Awarding temporary care and control of any minor child of a party involved;
(IV) Enjoining an individual from contacting a minor child at school, at work, or wherever he or she may be found;
(V) Restraining a party from molesting, injuring, killing, taking, transferring, encumbering, concealing, disposing of or threatening harm to an animal owned, possessed, leased, kept, or held by any other party, a minor child of either of the parties, or an elderly or at-risk adult; or
(VI) Specifying arrangements for possession and care of an animal owned, possessed, leased, kept, or held by any other party, a minor child of either of the parties, or an elderly or at-risk adult.
(c) In cases involving a minor child, the juvenile court and the district court have the authority to issue emergency protection orders to prevent an unlawful sexual offense, as defined in section 18-3-411(1), or to prevent domestic abuse, as defined in section 13-14-101(2), when requested by the local law enforcement agency, the county department of human or social services, or a responsible person who asserts, in a verified petition supported by affidavit, that there are reasonable grounds to believe that a minor child is in danger in the reasonably foreseeable future of being the victim of an unlawful sexual offense or domestic abuse, based upon an allegation of a recent actual unlawful sexual offense or domestic abuse or threat of the same. Any emergency protection order issued pursuant to this subsection (1) must be on a standardized form prescribed by the judicial department and a copy must be provided to the protected person.
(d) The chief judge in each judicial district shall be responsible for making available in each judicial district a judge to issue, by telephone, emergency protection orders at all times when the county and district courts are otherwise closed for judicial business. Such judge may be a district court or county court judge or a special associate, an associate, an assistant county judge, or a magistrate.
(e) When the county, district, and juvenile courts are unavailable from the close of business at the end of the day or week to the resumption of business at the beginning of the day or week and a peace officer asserts reasonable grounds to believe that an adult is in immediate and present danger of domestic abuse, assault, stalking, sexual assault or abuse, or that a minor child is in immediate and present danger of an unlawful sexual offense, as defined in section 18-3-411(1), C.R.S., or of domestic abuse, as defined in section 13-14-101(2), a judge made available pursuant to paragraph (d) of this subsection (1) may issue a written or verbal ex parte emergency protection order. Any written emergency protection order issued pursuant to this subsection (1) shall be on a standardized form prescribed by the judicial department, and a copy shall be provided to the protected person.
(f) An emergency protection order issued pursuant to this subsection (1) shall expire not later than the close of judicial business on the next day of judicial business following the day of issue, unless otherwise continued by the court. The court may continue an emergency protection order filed to prevent abuse pursuant to this subsection (1) only if the judge is unable to set a hearing on plaintiff's request for a temporary protection order on the day the complaint was filed pursuant to section 13-14-104.5; except that this limitation on a court's power to continue an emergency protection order shall not apply to an emergency protection order filed to protect a minor child from an unlawful sexual offense or domestic abuse. For any emergency protection order continued pursuant to the provisions of this paragraph (f), following two days' notice to the party who obtained the emergency protection order or on such shorter notice to said party as the court may prescribe, the adverse party may appear and move its dissolution or modification. The motion to dissolve or modify the emergency protection order shall be set down for hearing at the earliest possible time and shall take precedence over all matters except older matters of the same character, and the court shall determine such motions as expeditiously as the ends of justice require.
(2)(a) A verbal emergency protection order may be issued pursuant to subsection (1) of this section only if the issuing judge finds that an imminent danger in close proximity exists to the life or health of one or more persons or that a danger exists to the life or health of the minor child in the reasonably foreseeable future.
(b) Any verbal emergency protection order shall be reduced to writing and signed by the officer or other person asserting the grounds for the order and shall include a statement of the grounds for the order asserted by the officer or person. The officer or person shall not be subject to civil liability for any statement made or act performed in good faith. The emergency protection order shall be served upon the respondent with a copy given to the protected party and filed with the county or district court as soon as practicable after issuance. Any written emergency protection order issued pursuant to this subsection (2) shall be on a standardized form prescribed by the judicial department, and a copy shall be provided to the protected person.
(3) The court shall electronically transfer into the central registry of protection orders established pursuant to section 18-6-803.7, C.R.S., a copy of any order issued pursuant to this section and shall deliver a copy of such order to the protected party or his or her parent or an individual acting in the place of a parent who is not the respondent.
(4) If any person named in an order issued pursuant to this section has not been served personally with such order but has received actual notice of the existence and substance of such order from any person, any act in violation of such order may be deemed sufficient to subject the person named in such order to any penalty for such violation.
(5) Venue for filing a complaint pursuant to this section is proper in any county where the acts that are the subject of the complaint occur, in any county where one of the parties resides, or in any county where one of the parties is employed. This requirement for venue does not prohibit the change of venue to any other county appropriate under applicable law.
(6) A person failing to comply with any order of the court issued pursuant to this section shall be found in contempt of court and, in addition, may be punished as provided in section 18-6-803.5, C.R.S.
(7) At any time that the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction to enforce the emergency protection order has cause to believe that a violation of the order has occurred, it shall enforce the order. If the order is written and has not been personally served, a member of the law enforcement agency shall serve a copy of said order on the person named respondent therein. If the order is verbal, a member of the law enforcement agency shall notify the respondent of the existence and substance thereof.
(8) The availability of an emergency protection order shall not be affected by the person seeking protection leaving his or her residence to avoid harm.
(9) The issuance of an emergency protection order shall not be considered evidence of any wrongdoing.
(10) If three emergency protection orders are issued within a one-year period involving the same parties within the same jurisdiction, the court shall summon the parties to appear before the court at a hearing to review the circumstances giving rise to such emergency protection orders.
(11) The duties of peace officers enforcing orders issued pursuant to this section shall be in accordance with section 18-6-803.5, C.R.S., and any rules adopted by the Colorado supreme court pursuant to said section.
Credits
Added by Laws 2004, Ch. 178, § 3, eff. July 1, 2004. Amended by Laws 2010, Ch. 78, § 3, eff. July 1, 2010; Laws 2013, Ch. 218, § 8, eff. July 1, 2013; Laws 2018, Ch. 38, § 8, eff. Aug. 8, 2018.