DENVER — Two top prosecutors in Colorado wrote a letter to Gov. Jared Polis saying his decision to get involved in a pending legal case hurt the public's trust in the system.
"We are writing this letter to express our concerns about the process, timing and manner in which you commuted the sentence of Rogel Aguilera-Mederos," the letter began.
Republican Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein and Democratic Boulder County District Attorney Michael Dougherty wrote the letter dated Jan. 20, weeks after the governor commuted Aguilera-Mederos' sentence to 10 years.
Aguilera-Mederos was driving a tractor trailer in 2019 when it crashed on I-70, killing four people and injuring more. A judge sentenced Aguilera-Mederos to a required 110 years in prison based on Colorado sentencing laws. Polis commuted the sentence two weeks before the judge was considering a motion to reduce it through the courts.
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"That sentence is far too low for someone who kills four people in the appalling reckless way in which Mr. Aguilera-Mederos chose to do so. As we look into the future, though, our greatest concern is that you chose to intervene in a pending case, thereby undermining the integrity and confidence that Coloradans place in the justice system," the letter said.
Rubenstein and Dougherty are on the state's Sentencing Reform Task Force. They met with Polis in a Zoom meeting with all DAs last week.
"He did assure us that the case was unique and it was something that he understood was a very rare and unique situation," Rubenstein said in an interview with 9NEWS.
"We wanted to make sure that we addressed with him that we don't want any future sentencing reform to be based solely on this one case, and wanted to make sure that things were sent through the sentencing reform task force rather than having legislators send him a one-off for individual bills throughout the session," he said.
Also in the letter, the Boulder DA references a plea offer in a case of a family member accused of sexually assaulting a little girl. Dougherty wrote that the 8-year plea is being called excessive by the defense attorney because the governor gave 10 years to Aguilera-Mederos for a deadly crash.
Rubenstein said they left last week's discussion optimistic about Polis' outlook on sentencing.