Colorado’s 2026 Coercive Control Law: Impact On Domestic Violence Criminal Cases

Colorado’s 2026 “Coercive Control Law”- Impact On Domestic Violence Criminal Cases

By H. Michael Steinberg, A Colorado Criminal Defense Lawyer – Practicing Colorado Criminal Law in the courts of Colorado for over 40 years.

Introduction:

HB 26-1309 was signed by Governor Jared Polis on May 27, 2026. The act took effect immediately.

While the newly enacted measures are receiving considerable attention within Colorado family law circles in the months following enactment, the Act is also of considerable importance to Colorado criminal defense attorneys, as well as those accused of crimes of domestic violence.

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 “Coercive Control” The Formal Definition in Title 14

HB26-1309 amends C.R.S. § 14-10-103(1.5) to include the following definition of coercive control, which is included in Title 14 for the first time in Colorado history:

“Coercive control” means a pattern of threatening, humiliating, or intimidating actions, including assaults or other abuse, that is used to harm, punish, or frighten an individual.

“Coercive control” includes a pattern of behavior that takes away an individual’s liberty or freedom and strips away their sense of self, including their bodily integrity and human rights.

“Coercive control” includes isolating the individual from support, exploiting the individual, depriving the individual of independence, and regulating the individual’s daily behavior.

Isolating the Individual from Friends and Family

HB 26-1309 Section 1 adds a new definition to C.R.S. Section 14-10-103(1.5), titled “Coercive control,” and sets out specific circumstances constituting coercive control.

1. Monitoring, surveilling, regulating, or controlling the individual’s or the individual’s child’s or relative’s finances, economic resources, or access to products and services;
2. Monitoring, controlling, or overseeing the individual’s activities, communications, and/or contact with family and friends, including through monitoring or tracking technology such as GPS devices.
3. Frequent name-calling, degrading, or demeaning behavior by husband, wife, companion, or family member to another, including children;
4. Threats to harm or kill the individual, a child, or a relative — including wearing, accessing, displaying, using, or cleaning a weapon in an intimidating or threatening manner;
5. Threats of suicide or self-harm that are used as a method of coercion, control, punishment, intimidation, or retaliation;
   

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6. Threats to harm or kill an animal that the individual, a child, or a relative has an emotional attachment to;
7. Threats to publish sensitive and private information, including sexually explicit materials, and to report to police;
8. Damaging or destroying any property of the individual, including real property, or property in which either party has shared an interest in a household with the individual and the children, as well as household goods;
9. Immigration threats which include deportation threats, contacting immigration authorities to get someone arrested or picked up, withholding an individual’s immigration documents, or interfering with someone’s existing immigration case.Causing the individual, child, or relative to participate in any criminal activity or child abuse.

As mentioned previously, the new law has now defined “domestic violence” for family-court purposes.

This new definition found at C.R.S. § 14-10-103(1.5)(b) includes physical assault, attempted physical assault, threatened physical assault, property damage, cruelty to animals, etc.

It also includes important categories of behavior that were not previously included in the definition of “domestic violence” for family-court purposes, including: stalking; sexual assault; coercive control; economic abuse; and human trafficking of himself or herself, or another, for purposes of labor, sex, or domestic servitude.

Furthermore, the new language defining domestic violence in Title 14 applies regardless of whether such conduct constitutes a criminal offense.

HB26-1309 Did Not Amend the Criminal Statutes.

Here is the single most important sentence in this article for criminal defense purposes.

HB26-1309 did not amend the section of the CRIMINAL CODE that sets out the offenses of CRIMINAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (C.R.S. § 18-6-800.3).

Most importantly, it is critical to note that the Summary does not state that new sections have been added to the Code, only that existing sections have been amended to include new language, and that the criminal domestic violence statute has NOT been amended.

What HB26-1309 Actually Does — and Does Not Do — For A Criminal Case

The Law Does Not Create a New Crime of “Coercive Control”

HB26-1309 does not create the crime of “coercive control.” While a pattern of a defendant’s behavior, including examples of isolation, financial control, humiliation, and even use of technology to monitor another, may be presented as evidence in a criminal case conducted in the district courts of the eighty-four counties in Colorado, such behavior alone does not constitute a crime under HB26-1309.

A pattern of such behavior alone would not be charged as a crime in a case in Adams County, in Arapahoe County, in Denver County, in Douglas County, in Jefferson County or in any other county in Colorado.

The provisions of HB26-1309 do not change the matters that the state must prove to secure the application of the domestic violence sentence enhancer (C.R.S. § 18-6-800.3).

H.B.26-1309 does not change the burden of proof required to enhance the sentence of a defendant who has been convicted of an underlying crime as domestic violence, C.R.S. § 18-6-800.3.

The elements that the state must prove beyond a reasonable doubt in order to enhance the sentence of a defendant for domestic violence under C.R.S. § 18-6-800.3 are that:

1) the defendant committed the underlying crime; and

2) the commission of the underlying crime was either an act or threatened act of violence upon a person with whom the defendant is involved in an intimate relationship or the crime was used to coerce, control, punish, intimidate, or take revenge upon a person with whom the defendant is involved in an intimate relationship.

These elements remain unchanged, even though the matters that a family court may consider in determining parenting issues and in making other findings and orders with respect to the parties have been greatly expanded by Title 14 legislation.

The New Law Does Not Alter The Domestic Violence Mandatory-Arrest Law

Mandatory arrest for domestic violence is found in C.R.S. § 18-6-803.6. So, even though reports of isolation and financial control alone do not constitute crimes under the Colorado Revised Statutes (C.R.S.), mandatory arrest for domestic violence is only triggered by the commission of a crime as defined in the Criminal Code, and the victim is in an intimate relationship with the defendant.

However, The New Law Does Something Important — Indirectly

HB26-1309 raises new concerns for those, such as my law firm, practicing in the criminal arena, who must also address its impact. In many cases, the new evidence will be discovered in the usual course of investigation and preparation, but in some instances the defense will need to specifically develop contradictory evidence to minimize its impact on the case as a whole.

Lawyers defending alleged acts of domestic violence should investigate any evidence related to the relationship of the parties, including a family court case.

Collateral Criminal Consequences of the Law That Cannot Be Ignored

Even though HB26-1309 is a Title 14 statute affecting the family courts, there are five important ways in which its provisions could begin to affect your criminal case.

1. Cross-Admissibility Of Family-Court Findings.

The new findings now made by the family court in a hearing conducted under the new provisions of C.R.S. § 14-10-124(1.5)(a)(III.5) (which require a finding by a preponderance of the evidence that the party engaged in domestic violence, including coercive control) will be a matter of public record.

Thus, in a subsequent criminal case, in a bond argument, in a sentencing memorandum, in a pretrial services report, in a DVOMB evaluation, in a Rule 404(b) motion, these findings can be used as evidence to show intent, motive, or a common plan or scheme by the defendant.

2. A Wider Evidentiary Lens For CRE 404(b) “Other Acts” Evidence.

Colorado law has for some time authorized use of prior domestic violence by the prosecution in order to prove circumstances such as intent, motive, common plan or scheme. The newly codified practices for identifying coercive conduct in HB26-1309 will necessarily present great difficulty for defense in several anticipated ways, including cross-admissibility of prior findings and hearsay evidence of acts of domestic violence that were never charged.

3. Protection-Order Proceedings.

Protection-order proceedings in the family court where findings of fact were made in relation to definitions found in C.R.S. § 13-14-101 et seq. relating to domestic abuse for issuance of a civil protection order can have unforeseen consequences for a criminal defendant.

The fact that behavior that did not result in criminal charges but rather in the issuance of a civil protection order can result in a subsequent criminal charge for violation of that same order. C.R.S. § 18-6-803.5.

4. Bond Conditions And Pretrial Supervision.

Of course, all bond conditions are imposed by judges in their “reasonable discretion” to ensure a defendant’s appearance and the safety and welfare of the community. C.R.S. § 16-4-105. They can;

• continue to be there (e.g., require defendant not to leave state or county),
• continue to monitor him or her (e.g., require him to report to pretrial services or a domestic violence-related program),
• continue to control his or her finances (e.g., require defendant not to take out a loan or charge anything on a credit card),
• continue to track his or her whereabouts (e.g., require him to wear a GPS tracking device), and
• continue to prohibit third-party contact (e.g., with relatives or friends).

As with other conditions of release, violations of them are also crimes.DVOMB evaluations and treatment placement.

5. Sentencing Narratives

HB 26-1309 will also affect what a defendant must complete as part of a sentence. Treatment for those who have committed domestic violence under HB 26-1309 will have to be provided by a mental health care professional with specialized training in understanding coercive control as defined in new C.R.S. § 14-10-123(3). Any basis for alleged non-compliance with required treatment by a defendant on a deferred judgment, probation, or community corrections can result in significant sanctions.

Criminal charges like third-degree assault, harassment, or even criminal mischief will have victim statements and a prosecutor’s sentencing recommendations analyzed and presented with a powerful coercive control slant. Defense counsel must recognize that the family law proceedings will impact the defendant’s criminal case as well.

What Colorado Criminal Defense Counsel Should Do Now?

Based on my own experience practicing in the wake of HB26-1309, here is what I believe attorneys practicing in Colorado today should be doing with their cases and what their clients.

Map out the parallel family law proceedings early in the case and treat them as active issues until they are resolved (e.g., the parties are dismissed from the dissolution of marriage case, all issues regarding allocation of parental responsibilities have been decided, the civil protection order cases have been resolved).

If a criminal defendant is a party or potential party in a Colorado dissolution of marriage case, a case to determine allocation of parental responsibilities, and/or a civil protection order case, the criminal defense lawyer should immediately begin to consult with their family law attorney and vice versa.

Lawyers in the criminal case will need to argue that in cases where alleged prior acts of controlling or coercive behavior are offered as evidence of domestic violence, should use the inapplicable definition from Title 14 to argue that such prior behavior is not domestic violence as defined by the Title 18 crimes for which your client is charged.

Such behavior may have been the subject of prior family law or civil cases, but such cases do not establish that the behavior constitutes acts of domestic violence as defined by the Colorado Criminal Code for which your client is being tried and sentenced.

Lawyers must watch for new conditions of pretrial release.

During bond arguments, compare whether the information used by the State to argue bond was gleaned from the defendant’s criminal history, or was it taken from the prior family law matter where the family court found coercive control?

All conditions of release must be “reasonably related” to the offense(s) of conduct for which the defendant was arrested and charged, as well as protect the community from harm.

Be aware of written communications.

These can be quickly characterized by the prosecutor in charging documents and during cross-examination as “degrading and demeaning” communication. Previously, I wrote about how to preserve AI chatbot communications. The same principles for preserving text messages and emails would apply.

The Bigger Picture

It is important to note that HB26-1309 is a family law bill in Title 14 and was written with an understanding of how dissolution of marriage cases and the allocation of responsibilities for children work. Thus, in a technical sense, HB26-1309 does not add any new crimes to the Colorado Criminal Code.

When it comes to criminal charges involving domestic violence, issues of coercive control may be relevant. While the statutes have not changed, family law vocabulary has entered the criminal code. Thus, issues that normally arise in family court can affect criminal cases and vice versa.

All treatment programs for those with domestic violence-related offenses will have to be rewired in light of this statute. Also, expect longer, more specific bond conditions and greater prosecutorial creativity in DV cases..

Summary and Conclusion

Whether you are charged with a Colorado domestic violence crime and are seeking criminal defense representation, or are involved in a family law case in which allegations of coercive control have been asserted, and you are worried about the potential impact in that case as well, you should immediately retain an experienced Colorado defense attorney.

The potential consequences of a domestic violence conviction or a finding of coercive control in a civil case are too great to risk not seeking the assistance of an experienced criminal defense attorney.

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Colorado Criminal Law – Colorado’s 2026 “Coercive Control Law”- Impact On Domestic Violence Criminal Cases

The reader is alerted that Colorado criminal law, like criminal law in every state and at the Federal level, changes constantly. The article above was accurate when it was drafted, but it cannot account for changes that occurred after it was uploaded.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: H. Michael Steinberg – Email the Author at: hmsteinberg@hotmail.com

A Denver, Colorado Criminal Defense Lawyer – or call his office at 303-627-7777 during business hours – or call his cell if you cannot wait and need his immediate assistance – please call 720-220-2277.

“A good criminal defense lawyer is someone who devotes themselves to their client’s case from beginning to end, always realizing that this case is the most important thing in that client’s life.”

Putting more than 40 years of Colorado criminal defense experience to work for you.

You should be careful to make a responsible choice when selecting a Colorado criminal defense lawyer. We encourage you to “vet” our firm. Over the last 40 years – by focusing ONLY on Colorado criminal law – H. Michael has had the time to continually update himself in nearly every area of criminal law, including Colorado criminal law, procedure, and trial and courtroom practice.

H. Michael works hard to deliver the best possible results for his clients, both in and out of the courtroom. He has written extensively on Colorado criminal law and continues to do so, and he hopes this article helps you in some small way.