Adams County DUI Court Process

The 17th Judicial District, covering Adams and Broomfield counties, currently files more DUI cases than any other judicial district in Colorado — over 1,800 in a single recent fiscal year, outpacing even El Paso and Arapahoe counties despite having fewer residents. That volume shapes everything about how a case moves through the Adams County Justice Center in Brighton: the District Attorney's office leans hard on a standardized first offer, and defense counsel genuinely struggles to negotiate anything different without real mitigating evidence or a clear legal flaw in the arrest itself. Judge Brett Martin, a former Deputy District Attorney now presiding over criminal matters, is described as consistent and predictable — for a DUI defendant, that generally translates to strict adherence to sentencing guidelines rather than case-by-case flexibility.

Security here creates a genuinely perverse problem for exactly the people trying to follow the rules. Cell phones are banned outright in certain zones of the courthouse, and locker space for the public is limited — security staff routinely tell visitors to just leave prohibited items in their car. That advice doesn't work for a DUI defendant whose license is revoked and who arrived by Uber or public transit specifically because driving themselves would be illegal. With no vehicle to stash a phone in, they're stuck at the checkpoint holding a prohibited item with nowhere to put it — forced to either risk leaving it outside unattended or hand it over for confiscation. The people penalized hardest by this setup are the ones doing exactly what the revocation requires of them.

Monitored Sobriety as a bond condition isn't a one-time signature — it's an ongoing financial obligation that starts the moment court lets out. A defendant has to report to a monitoring provider immediately after the hearing to enroll in testing, and daily breath tests or random urinalysis run $15 to $30 each. Stretched across a six-month pretrial period, that adds up to thousands of dollars paid entirely out of pocket before any conviction or sentencing has even happened — and missing a payment gets treated the same as missing the test itself, which can mean an immediate bond revocation and a trip back to jail.

Virtual appearance through Webex exists, but only for specific divisions — the Drug Court docket (Division 606) has a dedicated virtual courtroom, for instance, while others don't offer the option at all. Reliable internet and a working device are assumed, which isn't a given for every defendant, and the courthouse's own phone ban makes it awkward to pivot from an in-person appearance in one division straight into a virtual one in another on the same day.

Sources

• Colorado Judicial Branch — Adams County Justice Center Virtual Courtroom (Division 606)
• Colorado Office of Judicial Performance Evaluation — Judge Brett Martin
• Colorado Judicial Branch — 17th Judicial District Chief Judge Administrative Orders