Q&A With Jeremy

Question: How long have you been practicing law?

Answer: Probably all my life. I definitely was an argumentative kid, if that counts. In all seriousness, I was admitted to the Colorado Bar in 2017, and I founded my solo legal practice about a year later.

With the exception of one pro-bono divorce I handled through the Modest Means program of the El Paso County Bar, my practice has exclusively involved representing the best interests of kids in the juvenile justice system in the Colorado Springs area. I've been doing that since 2018.

Question: What were you doing before that?

Answer: I spent about three years living out in La Junta working for the 16th Judicial District as an advisor for their substance-abuse problem solving courts. That's where I saw firsthand the importance of collaborating with smart and dedicated people when trying to solve seemingly unsolvable problems, like the cycle of addiction and crime.

Question: What are problem solving courts?

Answer: I'm really glad you asked that, because they are so cool. Problem solving courts are special courts that are intended to address specific issues. Most of the time they're aimed at dealing with substance abuse issues, but not always. For example, there are problem solving courts that try to address issues faced by veterans, etc.

Most of the criminal problem solving courts involve a collaboration between judges, defense attorneys, probation departments, prosecutors, and mental health treatment professionals. A lot of the time they involve more frequent and less formal status hearings, and they usually involve some form of incentives for positive behaviors and scaled consequences to the kinds of behaviors we're trying to change.

Question: You graduated from Maine Law, so what brought you to Colorado?

Answer: I was actually born and raised in Colorado. In Cañon City. I moved down to Phoenix, Arizona, in my late teens and spent pretty much all of my twenties there.

I graduated from Arizona State University in 2003 with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a second Bachelor of Arts in History. After that, I spent a little over a year teaching English in Tokyo, Japan.

I moved back to Phoenix in 2004 and eventually found work as an opinion writer for the Arizona Republic. By the time I graduated from law school in 2010, I was eager to move back home to Colorado.

I gave that a shot in 2010, but I couldn't find work and ended up back in Phoenix for another several years. I finally made it back to Colorado in 2015, which is when I got the job in La Junta.

Question: Why are you running for District Attorney?

Answer: The truth is I had no intention of running for District Attorney until I was asked. I was fairly content to do my best representing the kids in El Paso County's juvenile justice system and be the best dad I can be for my daughter and leave it at that. But once I was asked if I'd be willing to step up and offer an alternative for voters, it started making a lot of sense to me.

Question: How so?

Answer: On a purely philosophical level, I agree voters should always have a choice in elections. The last several DAs in the 4th Judicial District have been able to sleepwalk their way into office, and that shows. At a minimum, they should have to earn it by winning votes in a competition of ideas.

My personal experience is part of it too. I've spent the last six years seeing how a one-size-fits-all approach to justice does more harm than good. Every case involves unique circumstances. Having some sort of cookie cutter formula for resolving cases is a disservice to everyone involved and gets in the way of better outcomes.

I've also been frustrated a number of times by how the current DA has policies in place that make it so the dedicated and smart prosecutors I see in the courtroom are not able to resolve their cases without approval from supervisors. That's just ridiculous.

There's really no reason for a policy like that unless you're trying to protect a particular political image. It's also a recipe for having high turnover rates. Smart people will not tolerate micromanagement for long.

So I'm running for DA because we need to change all of this and more.

Question: Should voters worry about the fact that you don't have the usual defense attorney or prosecutor background?

Answer: Of course not. The elected District Attorney develops and implements policies. There's actually no reason the elected DA should ever step foot in the courtroom. And you'll notice when they do, it's on high profile cases that are likely to have tons of media attention and political and re-election campaign implications.

Voters shouldn't accept that as necessary. It's pure political theater. Nothing more. And it has no place in the courtroom.

The right approach for an elected DA to take is to hire great prosecutors and empower them to do their jobs well. Then get to work on collaborating with community leaders to find and implement ways to eliminate the root causes of crime.

Question: Do you find it difficult to be so smart and handsome?

Answer: Congratulations, you've made it to the end of this Q&A and learned a little bit about me, including that I'm not going to lose my sense of humor just because I'm running for public office. And, yes, it is absolutely exhausting being this smart and handsome.