Hunter v. District Court

Jesus Romero was charged in state court with two counts of rape and one count of second-degree kidnapping. At Romero’s preliminary hearing in the Colorado District Court (defendant), the complainant, Louise Gonzales, a married woman, testified that she had never had consensual sex with Romero, that Romero escorted her to a party and physically and verbally abused her there, and that her friend Eddie Quintana drove her home from the party. After Gonzales left Quintana’s car, Romero abducted her in Romero’s van, took her to an open field, and physically abused her and raped her twice. Gonzales escaped and called the police. At the hearing, Romero called Quintana as a defense witness. Quintana testified that his coworkers, Romero and Gonzales, had arrived at the party together and that Romero openly bragged that he and Gonzales had had sex. After Gonzales became upset, Romero attempted to restrain her on the floor, and Gonzales threatened to call the police. Quintana drove Gonzales home, and Gonzales noted during the drive that Romero was following them. When Quintana dropped Gonzales off, Quintana told Gonzales to get inside her home quickly to avoid trouble with Romero. The preliminary-hearing judge dismissed the information, noting that he disregarded Gonzales’s testimony in its entirety because it had been materially contradicted to the extent that he could not distinguish fact from fiction. The district attorney, Alexander Hunter (plaintiff) sought a writ from the Colorado Supreme Court directing the trial court to reinstate the information against Romero.