Colorado’s Court of Appeals on March 12 threw out the convictions of a Douglas County man and ordered a new trial after finding the trial court never sorted out whether his consent to a cellphone search was actually voluntary. The unanimous ruling affects John Jeffrey Allen, who had been serving a four-year county jail sentence for misdemeanor counts tied to a domestic dispute, and it marks the latest appellate reversal tied to cases handled by former District Court Judge Patricia Herron.
According to the unpublished opinion from the Colorado Court of Appeals in People v. Allen, Division V reversed Allen’s convictions and sent the case back because the trial court abused its discretion when it refused to hold an evidentiary hearing on whether Allen’s consent to the phone search was voluntary. Judge Rebecca R. Freyre authored the opinion, joined by Judges Karl L. Schock and Grant T. Sullivan. The panel also noted that once the case was returned, the trial court entered a suppression order, and the deadline to appeal that ruling has now passed.
Police reports described in earlier coverage show Castle Rock officer James Dinges told Allen he planned to search the phone but that if Allen consented, he “can be back here tomorrow,” wording the defense later argued crossed the line into coercion. As reported by The Denver Gazette, a forensic lab began extracting data from the device the day after Dinges seized it, and Allen later asked officers to return the phone.
Trial Judge Excluded The Phone Evidence
Once the case landed before District Court Judge Victoria Klingensmith, she held a two-day hearing on Allen’s motion to suppress. Klingensmith ultimately sided with the defense, writing that the officer’s remarks had “unduly influenced [Allen’s] decision-making ability” and ordering the phone evidence excluded, according to The Denver Gazette. The appellate panel concluded that Klingensmith’s suppression order resolved the central legal dispute and, as laid out in the Colorado Court of Appeals March 12 opinion, sent the case back for a new trial.
A Larger Pattern That Has Rattled Judges And Lawyers
Herron, who retired at the end of 2023, has been linked to a series of reversals and sharp words from appellate panels in recent years. Despite that record, the chief justice later signed her to a senior-judge contract, a personnel move that has raised eyebrows inside and outside the courthouse. As reported by Colorado Politics, the Court of Appeals has overturned multiple convictions and orders in cases Herron oversaw, prompting uncomfortable questions about oversight and the assignment of retired judges to the bench.
What Happens Next
A new judge must now conduct the evidentiary hearing the Court of Appeals said should have happened in the first place, and decide whether Allen’s consent to the phone search was voluntary under the law. Depending on that judge’s findings, the case could head back to trial. The decision also tightens the spotlight on other criminal cases that have been overturned after errors attributed to Herron’s courtroom. Court administrators and legal observers will be watching closely to see whether this latest remand prompts Douglas County to adopt broader procedural changes in how suppression motions and consent disputes are handled.
