“In order to escape accountability for his crimes, the perpetrator does everything in his power to promote forgetting. If secrecy fails, the perpetrator attacks the credibility of his victim. If he cannot silence her absolutely, he tries to make sure no one listens.”

The Colorado Judicial system is failing women and children by protecting abusers instead of victims, perpetuating a dangerously negligent standard of justice. Despite consistent evidence of violence, coercive control, psychological harm, and physical abuse, the courts continue to prioritize a rigid 50/50 custody model over the safety and well-being of families.

In counties like El Paso, where the “good ol’ boy network” remains deeply entrenched, men with documented histories of domestic violence, child endangerment, and even gun-related threats against former partners are still rewarded with equal parenting time and decision-making authority. This is not an oversight by the courts, it is systemic betrayal.

The judiciary routinely minimizes egregious offenses, allows criminal pleas to be erased with time rather than accountability, and dismisses well-documented abuse as though it were irrelevant. In doing so, Colorado courts send a chilling message: the rights of abusers outweigh the safety of their victims.

In the end, this is not justice. It is state-sanctioned re-traumatization.

When the judicial system reduces domestic violence protection orders to mere “civil” matters instead of treating them as the serious criminal offenses they are, it sends a dangerous and unmistakable message: abuse is not only tolerated, it is institutionalized. 

By continuing to grant men with well-documented histories of abuse equal custody, the courts normalize violence in families and place the illusion of fairness above the safety and psychological well-being of survivors and children. This systemic negligence teaches that abuse carries no real consequence, embedding in future generations the belief that power, control, and harm can coexist with parental rights. Forcing children to live with their abuser is not neutrality; it is complicity. It tells victims that their pain is irrelevant, and it tells abusers that their violence will be excused.

This is not justice. It is a generational cycle of sanctioned harm that is perpetuated by a system more invested in appearances than in true protection.

Judges in Colorado who routinely mandate victims of domestic violence to attend joint counseling sessions with their abusers demonstrate a shocking and dangerous lack of understanding of the abuse dynamic. Forcing a survivor to sit across from their abuser under the guise of “co-parenting” or “conflict resolution” is not only retraumatization, it is a blatant act of judicial ignorance and negligence. This practice hands abusers yet another tool of manipulation and control, sanctioned by the very system meant to protect victims. The willful ignorance displayed by the judiciary in these decisions perpetuates the abuser’s power, silences the survivor, and reinforces the toxic narrative that abuse is merely a disagreement to be resolved jointly. It is appalling that in a state that claims to value justice, the court system actively colludes with abusers by placing victims in harm’s way and reframes it by calling it progress.