The last district attorney to head the state’s largest judicial district before it is split in two will be elected this fall by voters in Arapahoe, Douglas, Lincoln and Elbert counties.
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Voters must choose between Democrat Amy Padden and Republican John Kellner to replace current 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler, who is term-limited.
Colorado lawmakers decided earlier this year to split the judicial district, which is the most populous in the state. In 2025, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties will become the 23rd Judicial District in Colorado, leaving Arapahoe County alone as the 18th Judicial District. Each will have its own district attorney, elected in the fall of 2024.
But for the next four years with the 18th Judicial District in one piece, whoever is elected as district attorney will oversee thousands of criminal cases and heavily shape the region’s approach to criminal justice.
Both Padden and Kellner said they’d prioritize community safety if elected, but each has a different approach.
Kellner currently serves as chief deputy district attorney in the 18th Judicial District, where he has focused on solving cold cases and garnered a reputation for bringing cases to trial — and winning convictions — even when past prosecutors passed for a perceived lack of evidence.
He served in the Marine Corps, working as a JAG prosecutor, before joining the Boulder County District Attorney’s office in 2011 and then the 18th Judicial District in 2013.
In an interview with the Denver Post, Kellner emphasized his trial experience and said his time as a prosecutor in the courtroom has prepared him to lead the office, in part because it helped him understand which punishments are warranted for which cases, to know who should go to prison and who shouldn’t.
“It takes experience to know where on that spectrum people fall, based on their conduct, their history, their likelihood for rehabilitation,” he said. “So yes, I will aggressively prosecute serious criminal cases, but we are not going to incarcerate our way out of the opioid epidemic and mental health issues.”
If elected, he’d like to double the district’s capacity in its “problem-solving courts,” which are non-traditional courts aimed primarily at treatment and rehabilitation. Those courts now focus on veterans, people suffering from addiction, and those with mental health diagnoses who are facing minor criminal charges.
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Padden, who currently serves as a deputy district attorney in the 11th Judicial District, is a reform-minded prosecutor with experience at the local, state and federal levels. Padden touted her managerial experience in an interview with the Post and said she would ramp up the district’s diversion program and establish a robust conviction review unit if elected.
Padden previously worked as an assistant attorney general in the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, and spent 10 years with the U.S. Department of Justice, rising to become third in command for the District of Colorado. In 2017 she started a run for Colorado attorney general, but later dropped out of the race and backed rival Phil Weiser.
She said she favors diversion — where someone facing low level criminal offenses agrees to take steps aimed at rehabilitation and the criminal charges are dismissed when the person successfully completes those steps — over “problem-solving courts” because diversion programs are typically less expensive and can handle more people.
“Too often as prosecutors we have been punishing the actions after the fact rather than getting to what caused those actions,” she said. “That is the key to making our communities safer, because that is how we will ultimately reduce crime.”
If elected, Padden would establish a conviction review unit with paid staffers tasked with examining claims of wrongful convictions in the district, she said, to replace the current volunteer unit.
Both Padden and Kellner declined to comment on Brauchler’s recent and controversial decision to charge anti-police protesters in Aurora with a bevy of criminal charges for their actions during the protests.
The two will join for a virtual debate hosted by CCJRC4Action, an affiliate of the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition, on Oct. 7, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. A link to the virtual debate will be posted at ccjrc4action.org.