The new DA from Pueblo County offers vandalism contributions to Pueblo enterprises

Pueblo – Kala Beauvais has held the position of the 10th 10th lawyer of the Judicial District (DA) for Pueblo county for over a month now. Her swearing in the ceremony took place in January.

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While Beauvais has taken a new role, it is not new to the DA office, because it has been working there for 12 years. He started as an internal and worked to the ranks, working as a prosecutor for many years.

“I’m still in court. I still have a handful of cases. I have kept the cases of homicide that were attributed to me and then I still make a copy of lawyers if there is a need for coverage in different divisions, ”said Beauvais.

Beauvais said she is aware that theft and vandalism affect many stores and shops in Pueblo. News5 has covered several incidents of plundered enterprises, including copper wire and alternative current units, and the windows shot and shattered on the store fronts.

Follow: Pueblo police that investigate multiple incidents of people stealing copper

“I am on the street again so fast and commit the same crime,” Beauvais said.

Follow: Pueblo business owners say they are full of repeated vandalism that happens in the city center

She said that people who steal and vandalize business again and are known as repeated criminals. Beauvais said they are among the first priorities, along with the violent offenders of the DA Bureau.

“As long as a small enterprise can remain in business when you have repeated vandalism like this and money that comes out of your pocket, which will eventually affect our entire community,” said Beauvais.

Watch: Windows from Pueblo Business shot and shattered for the third time this month

She said that repeated criminals will be accused of maximum conviction for committing crimes such as theft and vandalism.

“Obtaining the maximum will not yet fully satisfy everyone here, but we have to work,” Beauvais said.

She said that one of the biggest reasons why Pueblo sees a problem of repeated criminals is because of the conviction.

“So, the laws are made up of the Legislature in Denver, and then we are rooted with whatever comes out of there,” Beauvais said.

The DA office respects the law of the state in Colorado. Beauvais said that people who commit crimes often do not have long prison penalties.

“We can take a case and get the maximum punishment for something, but when this maximum sentence is reduced for four months and has been in prison, people are again in our community, who have just committed some quite bad crimes that affect everyone,” Beauvais said.

She said that the prison sentence was affected a few months ago, when changes in the charges were made.

“For example, I had three levels of crimes and M1, two and three. Now there are only two. We have M1 and M2, ”said Beauvais.

The maximum punishment for a 2nd grade crime was a year in prison, but was shortened to 120 days. For a class 1 offense, the maximum punishment was two years in prison, again, was shortened to 364 prison days, according to Beauvais.

“Repeatedly violates the laws. It repeatedly vandalizes our community and, therefore, we will use prison in this kind to maintain at least the safety community for that period of time, while they are under arrest, but you will not have a rehabilitation or kind of real solution if they are again on the street in two months, ”said Beauvais. “Especially if they are addicted, they could return exactly to what they left two months before. So, when you have no tooth in conviction, those repeated criminals are again on the streets. Sometimes they do the same thing they did before entering, ”Beauvais said.

Therefore, her office will request the maximum conviction for people who commit crimes such as vandalism and theft, but her hands are related to the law of the state and its rules of conviction.

“Do not really satisfy a lot of people and get this, but from here our hands are tied. This is the law and this is to work, ”Beauvais said.

The Bureau DA works with the law enforcement forces in Pueblo to try to condemn people in these vandalism offenses, but many of these cases do not yet have a suspect.

“Those who are here, we will take very seriously and … we fight for our community and for what it is … suitable for community members and business owners who have to spend $ 1000 in pockets to replace Windows repeatedly, or with repeated theft, you know, that affects us as members of the community when … the prices are so, because they are so, because they are so, because Because they are victims of victims repeatedly, and they must constitute it somewhere because they are victims? Everything returns to the rest of us, as members of the community, finally, ”Beauvais said.

Beauvais said that while they could not be able to adjust the conviction, it can testify at the state level during the legislation on the drafts introduced. On Wednesday, Mayor Pueblo, Heather Graham, the head of the Pueblo Police and Beauvais testified to the State chapter in Colorado in Denver against HB 11-47.

Beauvais said that Pueblo has a municipal court in which the DA Bureau is not involved, but is run by the City Lawyer’s office and the city prosecutor. The office is leading the County Court. She said that some of the punishments of municipal courts are different than at the county level.

“With this new draft law … he tries to make the punishments for the municipal court that fits the county court, which removes the teeth that they must punish and punish and condemn these people who repeatedly steal from our traders, who repeatedly break the windows in the center of the city, who repeatedly do within the city. And it may not be a violent offense, but again, are the things that affect everyone in our community every day, ”said Beauvais.

She said that this bill could have a harmful effect on Pueblo as a whole, so she decided to speak against her.

“If this bill would pass, then we would probably have had an influx of cases that come to my office to prosecute the criminal prosecution, because the municipal court would not have much incentive to take these cases. If they have the same punishment as us, obviously, we have more prosecutors than the city’s lawyer, but this would have a huge impact on my office, ”Beauvais said.

Going further, Beauvais would like to increase education and communication with law enforcement and community.

“You see, yes (it is) to be blamed for the things that are happening in court. We have our role that we play, but not everything is our fault, ”said Beauvais.

She said that her office does not make the laws, but applies them instead.

“The cases come to us after the law enforcement is investigated and then, so that education and training are huge, because often things are not as there are certain reasons why we do things with cases,” said Beauvais.

She said that there is a lot of good work that her team does behind the scenes that the public does not know. Her hope is to share some parts of their process with the community to better inform them about the work of the office yes. It has already started a social page for the DA office and also updates the web site to be more transparent.

“There will always be parts and questions that we cannot answer, because there are either GAG or open investigations, but we can talk more with the community or provide information, so that this office is working for our community. We fight for victims every day and do what the community has hired me and these other prosecutors to do, ”Beauvais said.

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