Harboring a Minor in Colorado
Harboring a minor is defined in harboring a minor Statute C.R.S. 18-6-601 which defines harboring a minor as follows:
(1)(a) A person commits the crime of harboring a minor if the person knowingly provides shelter to a minor without the consent of a parent, guardian, custodian of the minor, or the person with whom the child resides the majority of the time pursuant to a court order allocating parental responsibilities and if the person intentionally:
(I) Fails to release the minor to a law enforcement officer after being requested to do so by the officer; or
(II) Fails to disclose the location of the minor to a law enforcement officer when requested to do so, if the person knows the location of the minor and had either taken the minor to that location or had assisted the minor in reaching that location; or
(III) Obstructs a law enforcement officer from taking the minor into custody; or
(IV) Assists the minor in avoiding or attempting to avoid the custody of a law enforcement officer; or
(V) Fails to notify the parent, guardian, custodian of the minor, or the person with whom the child resides the majority of the time pursuant to a court order allocating parental responsibilities or a law enforcement officer that the minor is being sheltered within twenty-four hours after shelter has been provided.
(b) If the shelter provided to the minor is by a licensed child care facility, including a licensed homeless youth shelter, the minor, despite the minor’s status, may reside at such facility or shelter for a period not to exceed two weeks after the time of intake, pursuant to the procedures set forth in article 5.7 of title 26, C.R.S.
(c) It is a defense to a prosecution under this section that the defendant had custody of the minor or lawful parenting time with the minor pursuant to a court order.
(2) Harboring a minor is a class 2 misdemeanor.
Possible Penalties for Harboring a Minor in Colorado
Harboring a Minor
18-6-601
Possible Penalties
Class 2 Misdemeanor
- Up to 120 days in jail; or
- Probation; and/or
- $750 fine;
- Restitution
Defenses to Harboring a Minor in Colorado
General Denial
The accused will be acquitted if the prosecution cannot prove every element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt. When the accused raises a general denial defense, the accused denies that the criminal elements of the offense exist. General denial is related to the failure of proof defense. The failure of proof defense arises when the accused pokes holes in the prosecution’s case and argues that the prosecution failed to prove each and every element of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt.
Mistaken Identity
Mistaken identity is a general denial defense that attacks the element of who committed the alleged offense. As the prosecution is required not only to prove that the offense happened, but that the person charged committed the offense, the mistaken identity defense can be an effective way to challenge the prosecution on the element of who committed the crime. In the context of a harboring a minor case, mistaken identify defenses usually arise when the accused is arrested and charged with disobedience to public safety orders in riot conditions after the alleged offense happened or when the accused is identified after a chaotic situation where eyewitness accounts are not trustworthy. Mistaken identity cases often involve witness misidentification issues, poor witness perception issues, inaccurate, improper, or biased police identification procedures, grainy surveillance videos, and mistaken eyewitness accounts.
Alternate Suspect
The alternate suspect defense occasionally arises in harboring a minor cases. When the accused raises the alternate suspect defense, he or she does so to cast doubt on the identity element of the offense. In other words, the alternate suspect defense is used to cast doubt on the prosecution’s evidence that the accused committed the crime. By raising the alternate suspect defense, the accused casts doubt on the identity element of offense by raising the possibility that another person committed the offense rather than the accused. In Colorado harboring a minor trials the admissibility of alternate suspect evidence will depend on “the strength of the connection between the alternate suspect and the charged crime. If there is a non-speculative connection or nexus between the alternate suspect and the crime charged, the evidence will be admissible.”
If the defense introduces “alternate suspect” evidence, the judge must “look to whether all the similar acts and circumstances, taken together, support a finding that the same person was probably involved in both the other act and the charged crime.” If the judge finds that the accused has presented evidence sufficient to support a finding that an alternate suspect committed the crime, the accused can have the jury consider this evidence in their deliberations. While the alternate suspect defense is seldom used in harboring a minor cases, certain circumstances will give rise to the availability of this defense.
Duress
Under Colorado’s duress statute C.R.S. 18-1-708, a person may not be convicted of an offense, other than a class 1 felony, based upon conduct in which he engaged at the direction of another person because of the use or threatened use of unlawful force upon him or upon another person, which force or threatened use thereof a reasonable person in his situation would have been unable to resist. This defense is not available when a person intentionally or recklessly places himself in a situation in which it is foreseeable that he will be subjected to such force or threatened use thereof. The choice of evils defense, provided in section 18-1-702, shall not be available to a defendant in addition to the defense of duress provided under this section unless separate facts exist which warrant its application.
Entrapment
Under Colorado’s entrapment statute, C.R.S. 18-1-709, the commission of acts which would otherwise constitute an offense is not criminal if the defendant engaged in the proscribed conduct because he was induced to do so by a law enforcement official or other person acting under his direction, seeking to obtain evidence for the purpose of prosecution, and the methods used to obtain that evidence were such as to create a substantial risk that the acts would be committed by a person who, but for such inducement, would not have conceived of or engaged in conduct of the sort induced. Merely affording a person an opportunity to commit an offense is not entrapment even though representations or inducements calculated to overcome the offender’s fear of detection are used.
Choice of Evils
Under Colorado’s choice of evils statute, C.R.S. 18-1-702 (1) conduct which would otherwise constitute an offense is justifiable and not criminal when it is necessary as an emergency measure to avoid an imminent public or private injury which is about to occur by reason of a situation occasioned or developed through no conduct of the actor, and which is of sufficient gravity that, according to ordinary standards of intelligence and morality, the desirability and urgency of avoiding the injury clearly outweigh the desirability of avoiding the injury sought to be prevented by the statute defining the offense in issue.
(2) The necessity and justifiability of conduct under subsection (1) of this section shall not rest upon considerations pertaining only to the morality and advisability of the statute, either in its general application or with respect to its application to a particular class of cases arising thereunder. When evidence relating to the defense of justification under this section is offered by the defendant, before it is submitted for the consideration of the jury, the court shall first rule as a matter of law whether the claimed facts and circumstances would, if established, constitute a justification.
Statute of Limitations for Harboring a Minor in Colorado
In Colorado the statute of limitations for commencing criminal charges against a person is governed by C.R.S. Section 16-5-401. The statute of limitations for commencing criminal charges for harboring a minor in Colorado is as follows:
- Misdemeanor harboring a minor charges must be filed with 18 months. C.R.S. 16-5-401(1)(a.5)
Legal References
- C.R.S. 18-6-601 https://colorado.public.law/statutes/crs_18-6-601
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