Domestic Violence Charges in Colorado: What Happens First
Someone was arrested tonight, a protection order is already in effect, and if the charge involves actual or threatened force, firearms have to be handed over within a day. None of that waited for anyone's permission, and none of it means the case is decided. Here is what Colorado law actually requires, and who actually controls what happens next.
Figures follow current Colorado statute text, checked September 26, 2026.
Domestic Violence Is Not a Separate Charge
Colorado has no freestanding crime called "domestic violence." Instead, C.R.S. § 18-6-800.3(1) defines it as an act or threatened act of violence against someone you are or have been in an "intimate relationship" with — or any other crime, against a person or property, used as a method of coercion, control, punishment, intimidation, or revenge within that relationship. "Intimate relationship" reaches spouses, former spouses, unmarried couples past or present, and people who share a child, regardless of whether they ever married or lived together (§ 18-6-800.3(2)).
In practice, that means you are charged with the underlying crime — assault, harassment, menacing, criminal mischief, whatever actually happened — "with a domestic violence enhancer" attached. The enhancer changes sentencing options and collateral consequences, described below; it does not replace the underlying charge, and the underlying charge is what has to be proven at trial.
What Happens in the First 24 Hours
Three consequences that attach immediately, before the case is ever tried
Mandatory arrest
On probable cause that a domestic violence crime occurred, the officer must arrest the person suspected of it, without undue delay (C.R.S. § 18-6-803.6(1)).
Mandatory protection order
A protection order is created automatically against anyone charged under Title 18, with domestic violence the application carrying the heaviest consequences (C.R.S. § 18-1-1001(1)).
24-hour firearms relinquishment
For a charge involving actual or threatened force, firearms and ammunition must be relinquished within 24 hours of being served, excluding holidays and weekends (§ 18-1-1001(9)(a), (b)).
Firearms Relinquishment, in Practice
For a charge involving actual or threatened physical force, the court must order the defendant to stop possessing or purchasing any firearm or ammunition for the duration of the order, and to relinquish any firearm or ammunition currently in their possession or control (C.R.S. § 18-1-1001(9)(a)). That has to happen within 24 hours of being served with the order — not counting legal holidays and weekends — though the court can extend that for good cause (§ 18-1-1001(9)(b)).
Relinquishment has to go to a federally licensed firearms dealer, to law enforcement or a contracted storage facility, or, with a background check under C.R.S. § 18-12-112, to an eligible private party — not simply handed to a friend or relative for safekeeping. Failing to comply is itself a separate protection-order violation (§ 18-6-803.5).
Federal law layers an additional, independent consequence on top of Colorado's order: 18 U.S.C. § 922(g)(9) bars firearm possession for anyone convicted of a qualifying misdemeanor crime of domestic violence, separate from and in addition to the state relinquishment order.
The District Attorney Decides — Not Either Party
The alleged victim cannot drop the charges
Colorado's victim-rights statutes give a right to be informed of charging decisions, including a decision not to file — that is a notification right, not a decision right (C.R.S. § 24-4.1-302.5(1)(c)). A separate savings clause makes clear those rights are not "a restriction on or delegation of the district attorney's authority" (§ 24-4.1-303(4)). The DA weighs what the alleged victim wants, but the decision to file, amend, or dismiss is the DA's alone.
Treatment is ordered on conviction
A conviction requires completing a treatment program and a treatment evaluation that meet the standards of Colorado's Domestic Violence Offender Management Board (C.R.S. § 18-6-801(1)(a)). The court can order the evaluation done before sentencing, at the defendant's expense, if it will help the court decide on an appropriate sentence (§ 18-6-801(1)(b)).
Habitual Offender Status, Deferred Judgment, and Sealing
Habitual DV offender
Any misdemeanor that includes an act of domestic violence becomes a class 5 felony once you have three or more prior convictions that included an act of domestic violence — any combination of federal, state, or municipal felony, misdemeanor, or ordinance-violation priors (C.R.S. § 18-6-801(7)(a)). The priors must be spelled out in the charging document (§ 18-6-801(7)(b)).
Deferred judgment
A deferred judgment is legally available in a case with a domestic violence factual basis, but the defendant must additionally stipulate to conditions cross-referenced in C.R.S. § 18-1.3-204(2)(b), on top of whatever an ordinary deferred judgment would require (C.R.S. § 18-1.3-102(2)).
Sealing is limited
Colorado's citizen-petition sealing statute categorically excludes any conviction whose underlying facts involve domestic violence, as defined at § 18-6-800.3, from that process (C.R.S. § 24-72-706) — regardless of how much time has passed since the conviction.
How Long the Protection Order Lasts, and an Immigration Note
The mandatory protection order is not limited to the day of arrest. Under C.R.S. § 18-1-1001(1), (2), the court must inform the defendant of the order at arraignment or first appearance, and the order runs through the disposition of the case — it does not expire on its own partway through. Violating it is contempt of court, treated separately from whatever happens with the underlying charge.
For a noncitizen, a domestic violence conviction carries a federal consequence beyond Colorado's own penalties: 8 U.S.C. § 1227(a)(2)(E)(i) makes conviction of a "crime of domestic violence" a basis for deportation, using a relationship-category test that closely parallels Colorado's own definition. That is a federal question, not a Colorado one, and anyone facing it should get a specific answer from immigration counsel rather than treating a state criminal outcome and an immigration outcome as the same question.
Local Courts: Arapahoe County
Arapahoe County Justice Center
7325 S. Potomac Street, Centennial, CO 80112. A domestic violence charge follows the same routing as any other criminal charge here: misdemeanors in Arapahoe County Court, felonies — including a habitual-offender class 5 felony — in Arapahoe County District Court, both at this address, in the 18th Judicial District, Arapahoe County alone since January 7, 2025.
Digital evidence in your case
Domestic violence cases often turn on text messages, call logs, photos, and the responding officers' body-camera footage and 911 recordings. We review that record for what it actually shows and how it was obtained, including whether deleted messages were recovered properly through discovery rather than by someone logging into another person's phone or account without authorization.
Learn about digital forensics at our firmDomestic Violence FAQs
Straight answers, with the statute they come from
Related Pages
This page is general information about Colorado law, not legal advice for your situation, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. The legal statements here were checked on September 26, 2026.
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