ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — The sentencing of a former social convicted of making up a false report of child abuse against an Aurora City councilwoman was delayed again Friday because her attorney is "extremely ill."
Robin Niceta, a former Arapahoe County social worker, was arrested in 2022 after an anonymous phone tip called into the Arapahoe County Department of Human Services suggested that Aurora City Councilwoman Danielle Jurinsky might have sexually abused her young son. Caseworkers investigated and found that Jurinsky did nothing wrong and closed the case.
Court documents show the anonymous call was traced to Niceta, who at the time was dating the now-former Aurora Police Chief Vanessa Wilson. Niceta was accused of making the call the day after Jurinsky criticized Wilson while speaking on a podcast, calling her “trash,” according to court documents.
Niceta is being assigned new attorneys and her sentencing is now set for April 12. Despite the delay, Judge Eric Elliff allowed victim impacts to take place. Jurinksy and her father both spoke to the court about the impact the case had on their family and asked Elliff to impose the maximum sentence.
"Since this was a setup and I didn't know by whom, I had to prepare for the worst," Jurinksy said.
Her dad, Jerry, also spoke and told the judge he saw his daughter nearly fall apart and felt helpless to protect her and her son.
"Our family endured sleepless nights, discussions, tears, and worries that there might be a knock on the door to remove her son, my grandson," Jerry Jurinksy. "Your Honor, every lie and every evil criminal action committed by this defendant against Danielle and our family was planned, not random, spur-of-the-moment decisions, but planned and researched. She hoped it would it would succeed in removing a son from his home and destroy a family. This is why this person should not receive leniency from the court."
A DHS worker also spoke and said Niceta's actions tarnished the image of child welfare workers across the state.
"If one person in our community has doubts about our child welfare system because of Ms. Niceta and hesitates or does not call a child could be needlessly injured or killed," said Michelle Dossey, the child and adult protection services division manager for Arapahoe County's Department of Human Services,
No one spoke at the hearing on behalf of Niceta, but that could happen at the next hearing on April 12.
In March of last year, as this case made its way through the court system, attorneys for Niceta filed a motion seeking to delay her trial. A second motion sought an evaluation of whether she was incompetent because she was terminally ill.
The motions also included medical records that appeared to indicate that Niceta was being treated for a brain tumor.
Prosecutors said they could not verify the records and found that an IP address belonging to Niceta and her mother was used to create the Facebook pages of New Mexico Oncology Associates and Carey Marquez, the doctor who purportedly diagnosed the brain tumor.
"As I believe will be proven in the upcoming trial, I knew she wasn't dying, not even sick at all," Jurinsky said. "My belief was reassured when a reporter chased me down with the medical record and I was able to see them for myself."
Niceta was supposed to be sentenced last month but that was delayed due to her attorney's illness. At that hearing, Jurinsky expressed frustration and told the judge that Niceta had taunted her on the way into the hearing. Prosecutors later described the incident.
"Miss Niceta did in fact walk past Ms. Jurinsky and got within an inch of her face and stared at her, and her eyes were very menacing, or at least intimidating," prosecutor Daniel Cohen said at the January hearing. "Frankly, it was offensive to me, and I wanted the court to be aware of it."
In July, Niceta was indicted on 10 additional charges related to the fabrication of those medical records. Those charges are still pending, and a trial date was set for April. Her mother is also charged related to that case and is set for trial in March.
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