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Best Criminal Defense Lawyers Colorado Springs, CO Of 2024
A criminal defense lawyer is an attorney who represents individuals who face criminal charges.
Their primary goal is to advocate for their client’s best interests and strive to achieve a fair and reasonable outcome.
As your legal counsel, the criminal defense attorney will evaluate the evidence against you, devise a case strategy, file any necessary motions, attend hearings and represent you at trial. They will also confer with the prosecutor regarding plea deals and the advantages or disadvantages of going to trial. A criminal defense lawyer’s responsibility is to guide and advise you to make the best possible decision in your case.
Public Defenders vs. Private Criminal Attorneys
Public defenders and private criminal attorneys are responsible for defending individuals charged with criminal charges, and both must uphold the standards demanded by the profession. Eligibility, caseload and compensation are the primary differences between a public defender and a private criminal attorney.
The right to a public defender applies to adults facing felony or misdemeanor charges and all juvenile criminal cases.
A public defender is a lawyer assigned by the court to represent individuals who cannot afford their own legal counsel. To qualify for a public defender, you must disclose your income and financial obligations to demonstrate your inability to pay for a lawyer. Public defenders are provided at no cost to the defendant; their compensation comes from government funding. However, due to high demand, public defenders often handle heavy caseloads, resulting in limited resources and time to dedicate to each case.
A private criminal attorney is available to those individuals who can hire and pay for a lawyer. You have the opportunity to shop around for the right fit for your case, and the attorney can choose whether or not they want to represent you. Because private criminal attorneys can dictate their caseload, they have more resources and time to dedicate to their clients. You are responsible for paying your private criminal attorney, and costs can mount if your case goes to trial.
Should You Represent Yourself in a Criminal Case?
You always have the option to represent yourself in your case. Although the Constitution guarantees this right, it isn’t always advisable to forgo hiring a lawyer. One possible exception to the rule is when it involves a minor infraction in which the penalty doesn’t result in jail time or a criminal record.
However, in a complicated criminal case, you risk the possibility of an unfavorable outcome that could mean jail time, fees and a criminal record. The judge will hold you to the same standard as a lawyer, and your ignorance about the laws or court proceedings will not excuse a misstep. Hiring a lawyer is advisable to gain a higher likelihood of a favorable outcome in a complicated criminal defense case.
Colorado
Watch a livestream of Colorado’s ‘mega den’ of pregnant rattlesnakes
On a rocky hillside in Fort Collins, Colo., is a “mega den” of hundreds of rattlesnakes.
They live between the rocks year-round, but in the summer, the only snakes to remain in the area are preparing to give birth.
“So this is not quite what we might expect, like a black bear den or a grizzly bear den or something,” says Scott Boback, professor of biology at Dickinson College and co-leader of Project RattleCam.
“This is more like a rock face, where there’s a number of holes that go underground — crevices and cracks in between the rock — and you will see snakes go in and out of these holes. We don’t quite understand exactly what’s going on beneath the surface.”
YouTube
Project RattleCam, a research project based in California, is making it possible for people to observe the snakes with a live webcam. Cameras tucked away in the hillside livestream the snakes to their website.
Boback says this is an especially interesting time to watch the snakes because of their behavior during pregnancy.
Unlike other snakes, rattlesnakes give birth to live babies — or “pups” — and care for their young for a few weeks after birth. Typically, snakes live solitary lifestyles, but when they’re pregnant they coalesce around nurseries called “rookeries.”
“So when they are aggregated together, as scientists, you got to ask the question about why, what’s going on,” Boback says. “And so that’s one of the things that we’re doing with the camera, is we are interested in how these animals may be interacting with one another. Like, do they tolerate each other?”
Project RattleCam permits Boback and his colleagues to observe the snakes without disruption. It also allows the public to participate.
“We’re sort of right next to the general public who are helping us in that way by making certain observations,” he says. “They’re identifying individual snakes. They can go back and they can rewind the video and they can stop at certain frames, identify unique features on an individual and name the snake. And that allows us to sort of move forward in tracking individuals.”
Researchers from Project RattleCam understand some of the species’ strange behaviors, like rain harvesting, where the snakes coil up like a teacup and collect water in their body.
Other data is still being studied, but focuses towards the interactions of the mothers during their gestation period.
“If you have a whole bunch of expectant mothers together, they don’t all give birth exactly at the same time,” Boback says. “Essentially, what you have is the opportunity for other mothers to babysit for the mother that actually has given birth to those pups.”
Boback says that observing these traits helps correct wrongful assumptions about the species.
In a study published by the journal Biology of the Rattlesnakes, Cale Morris, a researcher and educator at the Phoenix Herpetological Sanctuary, used a fake leg to mimic stepping on 175 rattlesnakes. In the entire study, only six snakes struck back at the prop.
In May, NPR visited the rattlesnake training course taught by Morris in Scottsdale, Ariz. He told the class: “I just want you to look at this for what it is. This is not an aggressive animal. I see a shy, scared animal.”
Boback says there are many more mysteries to the social behavior of rattlesnakes, and RattleCam is adding insight to a neglected portion of zoology.
“The way that we have always measured sociality is often with primates,” he says. “Things like us, where we smile and we frown and we look at each other and have these very specific facial expressions.”
“Because a snake doesn’t do that, we maybe assumed that there is no socialization going on when, in fact, the snakes are getting a sense of smell from each other every time they stick their tongue out. And so there are chemicals in their skin that we believe they’re using to understand each other. Who is who? They have a way, perhaps, of detecting each individual. Is this my sister? Is this my aunt?”
Colorado
Colorado Springs-area Optum locations to permanently close
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) – Multiple Optum locations in the Colorado Springs area have stopped offering urgent care services as of this weekend, and will stop offering x-ray services as of August 1, according to signs posted to the front of these locations.
11 News visited 3 locations Tuesday night–Union and Fillmore, Monument and Old Colorado City–and all three had similar notices posted in the windows:
11 News learned of the closures when several viewers reached out to our newsroom asking for more information, claiming there was little to no notice to patients or employees that the clinics would be closing.
11 News has reached out to Optum to learn more about their plans to close these locations. This article will be updated once they respond.
Copyright 2024 KKTV. All rights reserved.
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