People v. Rickman

Summary

The Colorado Supreme Court held that a pretrial services program exceeded its statutory authority by imposing a weapons-possession condition that was not mandated by statute or ordered by the court. The court further held that the prohibition against committing a felony while released on bail was a mandatory statutory bond condition, affirming the reversal of the weapons-condition conviction and reversing the reversal of the felony-condition conviction.

Holdings

1. A pretrial services program may not impose a discretionary bail-bond condition prohibiting possession of weapons when the condition was neither mandated by statute nor imposed by the trial court. The trial court may not delegate its judicial discretion to set bail conditions to pretrial services, and the statutory list of permissible pretrial-supervision methods does not authorize pretrial services to impose a weapons prohibition.
2. The statutory prohibition against committing a felony while at liberty on bail is a mandatory condition of every bail bond. Pretrial services did not exceed its authority by including that condition in a bond-conditions form because the condition applied by operation of statute, regardless of whether the judge or pretrial services separately imposed it.

Questions Presented

1. Whether a pretrial services program may impose a discretionary bail-bond condition prohibiting possession of weapons when the trial judge did not impose or incorporate that condition into a court order.
2. Whether the statutory condition requiring a person released on bail not to commit a felony applies even when the condition is merely reiterated by pretrial services rather than expressly imposed by the judge.

Disposition

reversed