Theft Crime Lawyers in Fort Collins, CO

Aggressive Colorado Defense Team 

An arrest or investigation for a theft crime can immediately threaten your livelihood, career prospects, and standing in the community. Unlike many minor offenses, theft allegations carry the added stigma of dishonesty, making a conviction particularly damaging on background checks for employment, housing, and professional licensing. 

Our team at Roselle & Breitigam, P.C. knows that people facing theft charges are often good individuals caught in misunderstandings, false accusations, financial distress, or high-stress personal disputes. 

As former Deputy District Attorneys with over 65 years of combined criminal trial experience, we understand how prosecutors build theft cases in Colorado and how to dismantle them.

You can discuss your case directly with a Fort Collins theft attorney in a free initial consultation. Call (970) 238-7900 or reach us online to book a confidential in-office or virtual conference. 

Defense Strategies for Fighting Colorado Theft Charges

When you hire our firm, we immediately step in to insulate you from law enforcement, evaluate the state's evidence, and build a proactive defense strategy. Here is how our former prosecutors protect your interests:

• Intervening early to prevent or reduce charges - If you are under investigation or facing police questioning, we contact law enforcement and prosecutors directly. Early intervention often allows us to present mitigating facts, receipts, or context before formal charges are filed.
• Challenging intent and valuation - Under Colorado law, theft requires proof that you intended to permanently deprive the owner of property. We scrutinize the evidence to show a lack of criminal intent (such as a good-faith belief of ownership or inadvertent possession) and challenge inflated property valuations that artificially upgrade charges to higher felony tiers.
• Exposing constitutional and procedural violations - We audit police conduct during stops, searches, vehicle impounds, and interrogations. If officers conducted an illegal search of your residence, vehicle, or digital devices without a valid warrant, we file formal motions to suppress the evidence.
• Pursuing record-saving pre-trial resolutions - We actively negotiate for entry into adult diversion, deferred judgments, or compromise resolutions that allow you to complete court requirements without accumulating a permanent criminal record.
• Relentless courtroom representation - If prosecutors refuse a fair outcome, our trial attorneys are prepared to present your case before a jury, challenging witness credibility, surveillance logs, and financial documentation.

Theft Offenses We Defend In Fort Collins & Beyond

Our defense team represents individuals facing a wide range of property and financial charges, such as: 

• Shoplifting and retail theft - Allegations involving store concealment, price-swapping, or failing to scan items at self-checkout terminals.
• Burglary - Unlawfully entering or remaining in a building, residence, or vehicle with the intent to commit a crime inside.
• Robbery and aggravated robbery - Taking anything of value directly from a person by force, threats, or intimidation. Simple robbery is charged as a Class 4 felony, while robbery involving a deadly weapon, simulated weapon, or physical injury is charged as a severe Class 3 felony.
• Motor vehicle theft - Operating or retaining someone else’s vehicle without authorization.
• White-collar crimes - Embezzlement, misappropriation of business funds, employee theft, payroll fraud, accounting schemes, and other forms of fraud.
• Forgery and identity theft - Unauthorized use of personal identifying information, credit cards, financial instruments, or forged documents
• Criminal mischief - Intentionally damaging or destroying property belonging to another person or shared in a domestic relationship. 

Understanding Colorado Theft Laws & Classification Tiers

Under Colorado Revised Statutes (C.R.S. § 18-4-401), a person commits theft when they knowingly obtain, retain, or exercise control over anything of value belonging to another without authorization, or by threat or deception, and intend to deprive the person permanently of its use or benefit.

In Colorado, theft penalties are directly tied to the total monetary value of the items or property involved: