Thirteen sex offenders have been taken into custody after their release following a directive of the Colorado Court of Appeals in the case of People v. Cooper. That case dealt with sex offenders who committed their crimes between July 1996 and the imposition of the Lifetime Sex Offender Supervision Act of 1998. The Cooper court ruled that the sex offender sentencing statutes applicable to that time period did not allow for the imposition of mandatory parole. Officials have identified 18 persons affected by Cooper to be taken back into custody.
Efforts continue to apprehend the remaining five.
An additional 25 offenders who were released from custody after serving their sentence but not placed on mandatory parole per the Cooper ruling are being placed on parole pending final action by the Colorado Supreme Court. The state legislature passed several revisions to the sex offender sentencing statutes in the 1990s that are the subject of the five court cases now under review by the Supreme Court. The State of Colorado's opening brief on the five consolidated cases is due November 20, 2000. Because the Supreme Court is now considering the Cooper ruling and the other cases where the courts have ruled that mandatory parole cannot be added to the sentences of sex offenders who committed their crimes between 1993 and 1998, Attorney General Ken Salazar on October 12 recommended to the Colorado Department of Corrections that the sex offenders released pursuant to the Cooper case be taken back into custody pending a final decision by the Supreme Court. In addition, Attorney General Salazar recommended that the Department of Corrections place back on parole any sex offenders released from parole per the Cooper ruling.