There were two big events in April that have helped to illustrate our goals as local journalists. We hosted our annual SuperKids Expo (more on that next issue), where we celebrated who we are as a community today, and we see in the eyes of our youngest residents who our community is going to be.

But it was something else that created a reason to celebrate, not just for us, but for the community — we won an appellate court case in a 3-0 decision (in baseball terms, a shutout). Back in 2024, we requested all of the police body camera footage from the City of Boulder related to the officer-involved shooting of Jeanette Alatorre on December 17, 2023. Sure, the city said, only it will cost you around three thousand dollars. (That number would later inexplicably triple.)

Here’s the thing. There is a law in Colorado known as ELEIA or the Enhance Law Enforcement Integrity Act. That law does not permit agencies from charging fees before releasing certain types of footage. In fact, they can only slightly delay releasing video clips if there is an active investigation that the footage would be relevant to. The Boulder police department did not relent and so we took them to court in 2024. We won the case. The city appealed. And this month we won again. 

The Colorado Court of Appeals found that the Boulder police department in fact can not charge for this type of footage. As Yellow Scene attorney Matt Simonsen said in his arguments before the court “I would certainly hope that when there is a complaint of police misconduct that there are public employees reviewing this video for other purposes than just to blur it.” 

To say that we were overjoyed at winning the appeal would be an understatement. It’s also important to understand that when we say “we won this case” we mean it as what is often called the “Royal We.” Yes, this case was spurred by our desire to find the truth in a tragedy but the ruling will affect all of us. It’s a win for accountability, for equality, and for truth. And those are three things that sorely need a mark in the Win column now. It means that misdeeds can’t be hidden behind a paywall, that family members can regain a little faith in the follow-up of an incident, and that we can collectively watch for the truth, not settle for the official version of what they want that truth to be. You can follow that thought a little deeper with John Oliver in his Last Week Tonight segment on Bodycams.

When the verdict was announced we celebrated a victory for all of us. And then we got back to work because that’s what we do. And we do it best when we do it together so please keep reading, share the stories that matter to you with friends and family and become a sustaining member to keep those stories coming.

If that win does anything, it shows the power of local journalists who will scrape and fight for the truth.

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The post Editor’s Note: A Victory for the Community appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Storyshare provided by Jeffrey A. Roberts, Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition

April 9, 2026

By Jeffrey A. Roberts
CFOIC Executive Director

Colorado’s Law Enforcement Integrity Act does not permit agencies to charge fees as a condition of releasing body-worn camera footage depicting possible misconduct by police officers, the Colorado Court of Appeals decided Thursday.

Affirming a 2024 district court ruling, a three-judge appellate panel said the “conspicuous absence of a fee provision in the Integrity Act is telling.”

“After all, the General Assembly knows how to include a fee provision if it intends one because the CCJRA [Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act] plainly allows a criminal justice agency discretion to charge reasonable fees to review and produce criminal justice records.”

The underlying lawsuit concerns the shooting and killing of 51-year-old Jeanette Alatorre by Boulder police in 2023. The city required Yellow Scene Magazine to pay $2,857.50 before it would release bodycam footage of the incident, arguing that the video is still a criminal justice record subject to the CCJRA’s fee provision.

But the disclosure of footage under the Law Enforcement Integrity Act is mandatory when there is a complaint of police misconduct, the appellate judges noted. “The command is clear, plain, and unconditioned on the payment of fees.”

“We’ve set a state precedent,” Yellow Scene publisher Shavonne Blades told the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition. “Municipalities can’t hide behind these fees any more to protect police misconduct. My hope is that there will be a domino effect in other states.”

“Today’s ruling reaffirms what should have been obvious to Boulder when this lawsuit was filed two years ago — police departments can’t use exorbitant fees to hide their officers’ misconduct behind a paywall,” said Matt Simonsen, the magazine’s attorney, in an emailed statement. Simonsen represents Yellow Scene along with attorneys Dan Williams and Ashlyn Hare.

Enacted in 2020 following the police killings of George Floyd in Minneapolis and Elijah McClain in Aurora, the Law Enforcement Integrity Act is separate from the CCJRA, which governs the release of most other criminal justice records.

Under the statute, all unedited video and audio recordings of incidents “in which there is a complaint of peace officer misconduct … through notice to the law enforcement agency involved in the alleged misconduct” must be released to the public no later than 21 days after a request is made. An agency can delay the release of video until 45 days from the date of an allegation of misconduct if the video “would substantially interfere with or jeopardize an active or ongoing investigation.”

The fee provision in the CCJRA doesn’t apply to the Integrity Act, Thursday’s opinion says, because the CCJRA limits the charging of fees to criminal justice records “requested pursuant to” the CCJRA. “Had the General Assembly intended for a fee provision to apply to any request for criminal justice records,” Judge Stephanie Dunn wrote for court, “it would not have amended the CCJRA in 2008 to expressly limit the fee provision to requests made under ‘this part 3’ in the statutes.”

“Because ‘this part 3’ refers only to the CCJRA, the fee provision on its face restricts its application to those requests for criminal justice records made under the CCJRA.”

The appeals court also rejected Boulder’s argument that that not allowing fees for footage under the Integrity Act would go against a 1991 law that makes state mandates optional unless the state reimburses local governments for their costs.

“[W]e don’t agree with Boulder that the unfunded mandate statute trumps the Integrity Act, rendering the mandatory obligation to produce requested recordings entirely optional,” Dunn wrote. “The opposite is true. That’s because the assumed lack of funding leaves the two statutes in irreconcilable conflict. This is so because the Integrity Act plainly requires disclosure of requested recordings, while the unfunded mandate statute says that compliance is optional when such a requirement is imposed without an accompanying state appropriation.”

“When faced with such an impasse, the Integrity Act — the more recent and specific of the two statutes — prevails over the older and more general unfunded mandate statute.”

The Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition and the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado had submitted an amicus brief last July asking the Court of Appeals to affirm the district court’s ruling.

Follow the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition on X and Bluesky. Like CFOIC’s Facebook page. Do you appreciate the information and resources provided by CFOIC? Please consider making a tax-deductible donation.

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The post Court of Appeals: Colorado law enforcement agencies cannot charge fees for bodycam footage of alleged officer misconduct appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.

Editorial Intern: Eric Strumpf

Jeannette Alatorre’s death ignites a legal battle as local media and next of kin challenge Boulder’s handling of the fatal encounter and its commitment to police transparency.

The Incident

The death of 51-year-old Jeannette Alatorre at the hands of Boulder police officers on December 17, 2023, has led to an ongoing legal battle between Yellow Scene Magazine and the City of Boulder, which could potentially shape the future of police accountability laws in the state. This incident not only raises questions about the use of lethal force but also highlights the broader fight for public transparency in officer-involved shootings in Colorado.

The chain of events began at a Boulder recreation center, where, despite having a day pass, Alatorre was reported for trespassing and “overstaying” her time in the bathroom. When officers arrived on the scene, it became apparent that Alatorre had been bathing in the family restroom, 

There is no law in Colorado against bathing in public bathrooms, especially in a family restroom, where Alatorre would have had more privacy. After police arrived, the situation escalated, with officers confronting Alatorre about her behavior and eventually escorting her out of the recreation center. 

Sometime later that day, several more 911 calls were made claiming that there was an individual walking in the street with what appeared to be a firearm. The object she was holding was later revealed to be an airsoft gun with the orange tip removed. Officers claimed they were forced to escalate to lethal force after warnings, and the use of non-lethal weapons proved ineffective. Body camera footage captured officers shouting commands, firing multiple rounds, and performing CPR after Alatorre was critically injured. She was later pronounced dead.

A screenshot from body-worn camera footage shows Boulder police officers continuing to point weapons at Alatorre as she lies prone on the ground.

The Boulder Police Department’s body-worn camera (BWC) footage provided to YS shows that officers left Alatorre in a state of increased stress and escalation than they had found her in during that initial interaction. Boulder kickstarted a Crisis Intervention Response Team (CIRT) program in 2021 to co-respond with law enforcement to 911 calls involving mental health crises. However, due to the categorization of “trespassing” for that initial call to the rec center, dispatchers only altered BPD. 

Independent studies have found that police use force exceedingly rarely when responding to calls with Boulder’s CIRT. Between 2022 and 2023, just 0.3% of these co-responded calls resulted in law enforcement using force. Had dispatchers called for the CIRT to respond with officers to 911 calls concerning Alatorre, would she still be alive today?

Legal Fight for Transparency

In the aftermath, attorney Dan Williams filed a police misconduct complaint and requested the BWC footage to better understand the events leading to Alatorre’s death. In response, BPD demanded thousands of dollars in fees for locating and redacting the footage—$2,857.50 in the case of YS, which also sought the footage to report on the incident.

“Boulder is a small, relatively safe city. We have an extremely aggressive police department policing a city with very little violent crime,” Williams told YS. 

“So when there is an officer-involved shooting, it’s something I take notice of,” Williams explained when asked why he had chosen to file a misconduct complaint originally. 

These fees sparked a lawsuit, with Williams, Alatorre’s daughter, and YS arguing that the demands violated Colorado’s Law Enforcement Integrity and Transparency Act of 2020. This legislation mandates that families of victims receive relevant police footage for free and restricts fees for other requesters. It prioritizes transparency in cases of alleged police misconduct and was written in direct response to the Black Lives Matter protests that took place in Colorado and nationally that summer. 

In defense, the city of Boulder argued that a section of the Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act (CCJRA)  permits government agencies to charge reasonable fees for records requests if the state does not supply funding for this. While true, CCJRA is a wide-sweeping law that covers all open records requests, while the Law Enforcement Integrity Act pertains specifically to making requests for BWC footage in cases where a misconduct complaint was previously filed. 

In April 2024, a district court ruled in favor of YS, declaring that CCJRA does not override the Transparency Act when invoked. The court emphasized that the purpose of the Transparency Act is to hold law enforcement accountable without placing undue financial burdens on victims’ families or the public. The court also ruled, however, that records requests would only be considered under the Transparency Act if requesters specifically mention it, which YS did. 

In response to the ruling, BPD finally began to release the BWC footage from that day in December 2023; this is what we found. 

Body Worn Camera Footage

Boulder Police officers were consistently too far from Alatorre for less-than-lethal weapons to be effective.

Just fifteen minutes passed between when any given officer arrived on the scene and the fatal shooting of Alatorre. In all that time, Alatorre never fired a single shot from the airsoft weapon she was carrying. Throughout the footage, she is seen retreating from officers on foot. Had officers given the situation more time to diffuse, perhaps the fatal shooting could have been avoided. 

From a distance, it is reasonable to conclude that officers could not distinguish the airsoft weapon Alatorre was carrying from a real weapon since the orange tip was removed. But is this enough to justify police actions that day? 

Throughout the BWC footage, officers make several remarks about attempting to use less-than-lethal “bean bags” before resorting to lethal force. This was cited in the District Attorney’s final ruling that there had not been any misconduct during the fatal incident. Footage of officers actually utilizing the less-than-lethal method is not clearly shown in any of the BWC videos provided to YS, which BPD has assured what they provided is everything collected from that day.

It is possible that the officer who fired those less-than-lethal rounds was not recording at the time. It is also possible that the less-than-lethal rounds are indistinguishable from other shotgun rounds fired in the footage. Colloquially referred to as “beanbags,” these less-than-lethal rounds are actually just small sacks full of buckshot that can be loaded into regular shotguns. These rounds, while “less lethal” than regular buckshot, have still killed people when fired at the head, neck, or other vulnerable areas, thus the name. 

However, the distance officers were from Alatorre when those rounds would have been fired would have made them ineffective in subduing her at all. Begging the question, did Boulder police officers make enough of an effort to detain Alatorre without using excessive force? 

Colorado law states that officers are justified in using deadly physical force only when the officer believes it is reasonably necessary to:

• defend the officer or another from the use of imminent deadly physical force or
• make an arrest or prevent an escape from someone who has committed a felony involving the use of a deadly weapon or indicates a likelihood to inflict serious bodily injury or endanger human life.

Whether or not Alatorre’s case meets these standards for the use of deadly force could be determined by a jury, should the victim’s family choose to go further with legal action against the city. Twentieth Judicial District Attorney Michael Dougherty, based on an investigation by the Boulder Critical Incident Team (BCIT), found that the officers involved were not subject to criminal prosecution, though could not absolve them of the possibility of civil prosecution. 

In his decision letter, DA Dougherty clarifies that “the investigation and review of this incident does not evaluate nor review the appropriateness of police tactics or whether department policies and procedures were followed. My decision, based on criminal law standards, does not limit administrative action by BPD or any civil action where less stringent laws, rules, and levels of proof would apply.”

BWC footage shows officers engaging the scene as if it were an active combat zone, following Alatorre down a highly trafficked street, service weapons drawn. In some instances, officers have service weapons pointed directly towards motorists attempting to drive through the area. At the very least, this shows the department’s incompetence when clearing an active crime scene.

BPD officers are seen pointing service weapons at a black pickup truck. The truck can be seen reversing at high speed away from the scene immediately after this.

In the past, BPD has successfully detained violent offenders unharmed. In 2021, officers from the same department arrested Ahmad Al Aliwi Al-Issa, who killed 10 people, including one police officer, in a mass shooting at King Soopers by shooting him in the leg. If BPD could take down a mass shooter alive, why then was Alatorre shot nine times for simply holding a gun?

After the shooting, Boulder police officers approach Alatorre’s prone body cautiously, still shouting demands to drop the weapon that lies in her limp hand. Seeing that she is still making small, twitch-like movements, officers cuff Alatorre’s wrists and ankles before attempting CPR.

While administering CPR is one possible intervention for gunshot wounds, other emergency responses such as stopping the hemorrhage, managing the victim’s airway, and preventing shock are also necessary. In Alatorre’s case, these additional interventions were not attempted by the officers who gunned her down. Additionally, several high-profile cases of excessive force have highlighted a lack of medical response from officers, leading some police reform activists to raise ethical concerns over officer-administered CPR as a way of protecting themselves against scrutiny.

Colorado’s Law Enforcement and Integrity Act requires that footage be released immediately to victims’ family members. Following the court ruling in favor of YS, Williams expected the BWC footage to be available immediately, but this was not the case. The city of Boulder began releasing the footage 45 days after the initial ruling. From there, it took further requests from Williams for the city to release the remaining footage. The final video, which showed the deadly shooting as well as officer actions immediately following, was at first heavily blurred. 

“There are some limited reasons in the statute for privacy, where a video can be blurred. But the city’s use of this blurring was well beyond what the statute allows,” Williams said. “They were blurring after they had killed Ms Alatorre. They blurred what the officers were doing, which, there was no privacy interest that would have permitted that.” 

Is it possible that BPD attempted to release only a highly blurred version of the events immediately after the shooting to obscure their actions?

BPD officers are seen again pointing service weapons in the direction of oncoming traffic and residential housing.

Legal Battle Continues

Earlier this month, the City of Boulder appealed the district court decision, raising two key arguments. First, it questions whether the Transparency Act truly overrides the Colorado Criminal Justice Records Act (CCJRA) when invoked. Second, it contends that the district court’s decision neglects a CORA provision allowing governments to charge fees if the state does not fund the release of records. 

The outcome of this appeal could have far-reaching implications for how transparency laws are interpreted and enforced in Colorado. A decision favoring Boulder might discourage future records requests by imposing significant financial barriers, while a decision against the city could strengthen the public’s ability to scrutinize law enforcement actions.

While the legal battle over transparency unfolds, the deeper questions surrounding Alatorre’s death remain unanswered. Was the use of lethal force justified? Could the situation have been de-escalated? And what systemic changes are needed to prevent similar incidents in the future? And why, knowing she had mental health issues from their previous interaction, did dispatchers not alert CIRT?

The lack of clarity in the events of December 17th, 2023, and the legal hurdles in accessing footage have only deepened the anguish for Alatorre’s family and the community. Activists and journalists alike have pointed out that the fight for accountability and transparency is critical in addressing the broader issue of police brutality—a persistent concern in an age of increasing demands for law enforcement reform.

The case of Jeannette Alatorre exemplifies the critical need for transparency and underscores the importance of holding institutions accountable when lives are lost at the hands of law enforcement. As the legal proceedings continue, the hope is that Colorado’s transparency laws will be clarified and strengthened, ensuring that families, advocates, and the public have the tools necessary to demand justice and prevent future tragedies.

Democracy needs journalism more than ever. We’ve been telling the truth for 24 years. Your support helps us keep telling it for at least the next four years.

Like journalism like this? Consider becoming a sustaining supporter (and get our printed copy monthly at home.)
Democracy needs journalism more than ever. We’ve been telling the truth for 24 years. Your support helps us keep telling it for at least the next four years.

The post When Lethal Force Becomes the Default: The Death of Jeannette Alatorre appeared first on Yellow Scene Magazine.