Boulder County, Colo. -The Fresh Start Warrant Program was held at the Boulder County Justice Center on Saturday, May 2, 2026. Saturday’s event was the seventh Fresh Start Program for the 20th Judicial District (Boulder County).

In 2019, our office launched the first Fresh Start Warrant Forgiveness Program in Colorado. Several other jurisdictions now offer this program to their communities.

This highly innovative, successful program is designed to give individuals with active warrants stemming from non-violent, low-level misdemeanor or traffic cases an opportunity to resolve their warrant(s) and set a new court date or resolve their case. Nearly all the participants had received a letter sent by the District Attorney’s Office to their home address, which reflects that these individuals had neither gone into hiding, nor fled the jurisdiction. Rather, the vast majority of participants were community members who had forgotten about their case or hadn’t appeared in court for fear of having to spend time in jail on these low-level charges. This program saves significant resources for law enforcement and the Jail in the arrest and custody process, which is why the program is strongly supported by law enforcement.

A total of forty (40) people came to the program on Saturday. Over thirty-eight (38) warrants were resolved. As promised, no one that came to the courthouse was arrested on a warrant. Once again, this program was a collaborative effort between the District Attorney’s Office, the Public Defender’s Office, judges, Probation, Community Justice Services, courthouse staff, and the Sheriff’s Office. Additionally, events were held simultaneously in Jefferson and Adams Counties.

District Attorney Michael Dougherty stated, “Once again, this program has proven to be a tremendous success. It helped people get their cases, and their lives, back on track while also conserving law‑enforcement resources and taxpayer dollars. Our staff and the partners who volunteered their time on Saturday made a real difference for more than forty individuals. I want to give special thanks to Chief Deputy District Attorney Christian Gardner‑Wood for his leadership and his continued commitment to this program.”