CO Code § 44-3-907 (2021)
2021 Colorado Code|Title 44 - Revenue - Regulation of Activities|Article 3 - Alcohol Beverages|Part 9 - Unlawful Acts - Enforcement|§ 44-3-907. Return on Warrant - Sale of Liquor Seized

  If any alcohol beverages are there found, said officer shall seize the same and the vessels in which they are contained and all implements and furniture used or kept in connection with such beverages in the illegal selling, bartering, exchanging, giving away, or carrying of same, and any wagon, automobile, truck, vehicle, contrivance, thing, or device used in conveying the same, and safely keep them and make immediate return on the warrant. The property shall not be taken from the custody of any officer seizing or holding the same by writ of replevin or other process while the proceedings relating thereto are pending.    Final judgment of conviction in such proceedings shall be a bar to any suit for the recovery of any property so seized or the value of same or for damages alleged to arise by reason of the seizure and detention. The judgment entered shall find said alcohol beverages to be unlawful and shall direct their destruction or sale forthwith, in the manner provided by subsection (7) of this section. The wagon, automobile, truck, vehicle, contrivance, thing, or device, vessels, implements, and furniture shall likewise be ordered disposed of in the same manner as personal property is sold under execution, and the proceeds therefrom applied, first in the payment of the cost of the prosecution and of any fine imposed, and the balance, if any, paid into the general school fund of the county in which the conviction is had.    The officer serving the warrant shall forthwith proceed in the manner required for the institution of a criminal action in the court issuing the warrant, charging a violation of law as the evidence in the case justifies. If the officer refuses or neglects to so proceed as specified, then the person filing the affidavit for the search warrant, or any other person, may so proceed.    If, during the trial of a person charged with a violation of this article 3, the evidence presented discloses that fluids were poured out, or otherwise destroyed, manifestly for the purpose of preventing seizure, said fluids shall be held to be prima facie alcohol beverages and intended for unlawful use, sale, barter, exchange, or gift.    If no person is in possession of the premises where illegal alcohol beverages are found, the officer seizing the alcohol beverages shall post in a conspicuous place on said premises a copy of the warrant, and if at the time fixed for any hearing concerning the alcohol beverages seized, or within thirty days thereafter, no person appears, the court in which the hearing was to be held shall order the alcohol beverages destroyed or sold in the manner provided in subsection (7) of this section.    No warrant issued pursuant to this article 3 shall authorize the search of any place where a person may lawfully keep alcohol beverages as provided in this article 3. No warrant shall be issued to search a home occupied as such, as provided in this section, unless it or some part of it is used in connection with or as a store, shop, hotel, boardinghouse, rooming house, or place of public resort.    Any sale of alcohol beverages conducted upon order of court pursuant to this section shall be conducted in the following manner:   The officer ordered by the court to conduct the sale shall give notice of the time and place of the sale by posting a notice in a prominent place in the county for a period of five consecutive days prior to the day of the sale. The notice shall describe as fully as possible the property to be sold and shall state the time and place of the sale.    The sale shall be conducted as a public auction in some suitable public place on the specified day at some time between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m., and the time chosen for the sale shall be indicated in the notice.        History. Source: L. 2018: Entire article added with relocations,(HB 18-1025), ch. 152, p. 1064, § 2, effective October 1.    Editor's note:   This section is similar to former § 12-47-906 as it existed prior to 2018.   ANNOTATION   Annotator's note. The following annotations include a case decided under former provisions similar to this section.   Forfeitures are generally not favored in law, and may be enforced only when accomplished within the letter and spirit of law. Walker v. City of Denver, 720 P.2d 619 (Colo. App. 1986).   A criminal conviction is a condition precedent to forfeiture under this section. Walker v. City of Denver, 720 P.2d 619 (Colo. App. 1986).