(1) (a) Any county or district court
shall have the authority to enter an emergency protection order pursuant to the
provisions of this subsection (1).
(b) An emergency protection order issued pursuant to this subsection (1) may
include:
(I) Restraining a party from contacting, harassing, injuring, intimidating,
threatening, molesting, touching, stalking, sexually assaulting or abusing any other
party, a minor child of either of the parties, or a minor child who is in danger in the
reasonably foreseeable future of being a victim of an unlawful sexual offense or
domestic abuse;
(II) Excluding a party from the family home or from the home of another
party upon a showing that physical or emotional harm would otherwise result;
(III) Awarding temporary care and control of any minor child of a party
involved;
(IV) Enjoining an individual from contacting a minor child at school, at work,
or wherever he or she may be found;
(V) Restraining a party from molesting, injuring, killing, taking, transferring,
encumbering, concealing, disposing of or threatening harm to an animal owned,
possessed, leased, kept, or held by any other party, a minor child of either of the
parties, or an elderly or at-risk adult; or
(VI) Specifying arrangements for possession and care of an animal owned,
possessed, leased, kept, or held by any other party, a minor child of either of the
parties, or an elderly or at-risk adult.
(c) In cases involving a minor child, the juvenile court and the district court
have the authority to issue emergency protection orders to prevent an unlawful
sexual offense, as defined in section 18-3-411 (1), or to prevent domestic abuse, as
defined in section 13-14-101 (2), when requested by the local law enforcement
agency, the county department of human or social services, or a responsible person
who asserts, in a verified petition supported by affidavit, that there are reasonable
grounds to believe that a minor child is in danger in the reasonably foreseeable
future of being the victim of an unlawful sexual offense or domestic abuse, based
upon an allegation of a recent actual unlawful sexual offense or domestic abuse or
threat of the same. Any emergency protection order issued pursuant to this
subsection (1) must be on a standardized form prescribed by the judicial
department, and a copy must be provided to the protected person.
(d) The chief judge in each judicial district shall be responsible for making
available in each judicial district a judge to issue, by telephone, emergency
protection orders at all times when the county and district courts are otherwise
closed for judicial business. Such judge may be a district court or county court
judge or a special associate, an associate, an assistant county judge, or a
magistrate.
(e) When the county, district, and juvenile courts are unavailable from the
close of business at the end of the day or week to the resumption of business at the
beginning of the day or week and a peace officer asserts reasonable grounds to
believe that an adult is in immediate and present danger of domestic abuse,
assault, stalking, sexual violence, or that a minor child is in immediate and present
danger of an unlawful sexual offense, as defined in section 18-3-411 (1), or of
domestic abuse, as defined in section 13-14-101 (2), a judge made available pursuant
to subsection (1)(d) of this section may issue a written or verbal ex parte emergency
protection order. Any written emergency protection order issued pursuant to this
subsection (1) must be on a standardized form prescribed by the judicial
department, and a copy shall be provided to the protected person.
(f) An emergency protection order issued pursuant to this subsection (1) shall
expire not later than the close of judicial business on the next day of judicial
business following the day of issue, unless otherwise continued by the court. The
court may continue an emergency protection order filed to prevent abuse pursuant
to this subsection (1) only if the judge is unable to set a hearing on plaintiff's
request for a temporary protection order on the day the complaint was filed
pursuant to section 13-14-104.5; except that this limitation on a court's power to
continue an emergency protection order shall not apply to an emergency protection
order filed to protect a minor child from an unlawful sexual offense or domestic
abuse. For any emergency protection order continued pursuant to the provisions of
this paragraph (f), following two days' notice to the party who obtained the
emergency protection order or on such shorter notice to said party as the court may
prescribe, the adverse party may appear and move its dissolution or modification.
The motion to dissolve or modify the emergency protection order shall be set down
for hearing at the earliest possible time and shall take precedence over all matters
except older matters of the same character, and the court shall determine such
motions as expeditiously as the ends of justice require.
(2) (a) A verbal emergency protection order may be issued pursuant to
subsection (1) of this section only if the issuing judge finds that the risk or threat of
physical harm or the threat of psychological or emotional harm exists in close
proximity to one or more persons or that the risk or threat of physical harm or the
threat of psychological or emotional harm exists to the life or health of the minor
child in the reasonably foreseeable future.
(b) Any verbal emergency protection order shall be reduced to writing and
signed by the officer or other person asserting the grounds for the order and shall
include a statement of the grounds for the order asserted by the officer or person.
The officer or person shall not be subject to civil liability for any statement made or
act performed in good faith. The emergency protection order shall be served upon
the respondent with a copy given to the protected party and filed with the county or
district court as soon as practicable after issuance. Any written emergency
protection order issued pursuant to this subsection (2) shall be on a standardized
form prescribed by the judicial department, and a copy shall be provided to the
protected person.
(3) The court shall electronically transfer into the central registry of
protection orders established pursuant to section 18-6-803.7, C.R.S., a copy of any
order issued pursuant to this section and shall deliver a copy of such order to the
protected party or his or her parent or an individual acting in the place of a parent
who is not the respondent.
(4) If any person named in an order issued pursuant to this section has not
been served personally with such order but has received actual notice of the
existence and substance of such order from any person, any act in violation of such
order may be deemed sufficient to subject the person named in such order to any
penalty for such violation.
(5) Venue for filing a complaint pursuant to this section is proper in any
county where the acts that are the subject of the complaint occur, in any county
where one of the parties resides, or in any county where one of the parties is
employed. This requirement for venue does not prohibit the change of venue to any
other county appropriate under applicable law.
(6) A person failing to comply with any order of the court issued pursuant to
this section shall be found in contempt of court and, in addition, may be punished as
provided in section 18-6-803.5, C.R.S.
(7) At any time that the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction to
enforce the emergency protection order has cause to believe that a violation of the
order has occurred, it shall enforce the order. If the order is written and has not
been personally served, a member of the law enforcement agency shall serve a
copy of said order on the person named respondent therein. If the order is verbal, a
member of the law enforcement agency shall notify the respondent of the
existence and substance thereof.
(8) The availability of an emergency protection order shall not be affected by
the person seeking protection leaving his or her residence to avoid harm.
(9) The issuance of an emergency protection order shall not be considered
evidence of any wrongdoing.
(10) If three emergency protection orders are issued within a one-year period
involving the same parties within the same jurisdiction, the court shall summon the
parties to appear before the court at a hearing to review the circumstances giving
rise to such emergency protection orders.
(11) The duties of peace officers enforcing orders issued pursuant to this
section shall be in accordance with section 18-6-803.5, C.R.S., and any rules
adopted by the Colorado supreme court pursuant to said section.