John and Anne Scarffe, Boulder County. Michael David Czeponis, 39, of Nederland has been bound over for trial on criminal mischief and two counts of sexual assault by a person in a position of trust after his Preliminary Hearing on January 27, 2020. Boulder County Judge Kristy Martinez ruled that Czeponis be bound over for trial on April 17, 2020, on the three counts.

Czeponis was arrested out of state and extradited back to the Boulder County Jail on November 25, 2019. He was charged with two counts of sexual assault by a person in a position of trust, criminal mischief, third-degree assault and cruelty to animals, according to court records. The Preliminary Hearing did not address the third-degree assault charge or the animal cruelty charges because those are misdemeanors.  

According to a police report, in the beginning of August of 2019, the Nederland Police Department began investigating allegations of sexual assault involving multiple female victims and one male suspect. The alleged incidents occurred on several dates over several years. 

The suspect was an adult, and the alleged victims were juveniles on the date of the incidents. Reports of physical assaults, criminal mischief and cruelty to animals were also investigated. Multiple officers conducted interviews with witnesses and the alleged victims in this incident, according to police.

Czeponis appeared at the Public Hearing and sat at the defense attorney’s desk, dressed in white Boulder County jail attire with a neatly trimmed beard and bald head, and took notes during the proceeding. The defense attorney, Jennifer Engelmann, first requested a sequestration order, and the Court approved.

The defense then asked that the Public Hearing be closed to the public and cited Star Journal vs. County Court and a 1979 Colorado Supreme Court decision that publicity could cause a clear and present danger to the defendant. Czeponis has constitutional protection for a non-precedential trial. The defense said that two members of the press with The Mountain-Ear were present, and a number of articles have already appeared in The Mountain-Ear and the Boulder Daily Camera. The defense suggested, Nederland is a very small community and a local judge had already recused herself. Preparing for the trial, several witnesses will need to be interviewed, and it could taint the jury pool, so it presents a clear and present danger.

The defense suggested that the hearing be closed to the public but a transcript would be available to the public. Catrina Weigel with the District Attorney’s office said she did not agree with closing the hearing. The court has preliminary hearings all the time and press members all over the courts. 

The defense has not made a compelling argument that it is clear and dangerous. The public has a right to the public hearing, and the defense hasn’t met the burden, Weigel said.

Procedures are in place during the Voir Dire process, the selection of a jury for a trial, that address issues about the press.

Judge Martinez denied the request to close the hearing. She said that the jury pool would come from all over the Boulder County area and would not be tainted by publicity. The Voir Dire process with questions of potential jurors and their exposure to publicity can address that issue.

The defense then said that the two members of the press were sitting directly behind the defense attorney’s desk and could possibly see their materials and asked that they move. We moved to the other side of the court room.

The prosecuting attorney called only one witness: Nederland Police Sgt. Jennifer Fine-Loven, who was the lead investigator on the investigation. She identified Czeponis in the courtroom as the person she investigated. 

In the fall of 2019, Czeponis lived in Nederland, and another family lived with him, she said. On September 20, 2019, officers investigated a criminal mischief charge at the Nederland Skate Park, when spray paint graffiti appeared that will cost an estimated $5,900 to repair. According to Sgt. Fine-Loven, a witness observed the defendant spraying the paint. 

Fine-Loven said a bottle of peppermint schnapps by the graffiti was traced back to Czeponis, and police investigation found that he purchased two cans of red and black spray paint that matched the graffiti. He was then alleged to sexually abuse two girls under his care. 

Following closing arguments, Judge Martinez ruled that Czeponis will be bound over for one count on criminal mischief, because the dollar amount is between $5,000 and $20,000 based on the spray paint evidence, that he bound over for Count 1, sexual assault on a child (position of trust), a class three felony, and Count 2, sexual assault on a child, (position of trust), a class four felony. 

The trial has been set for April 17, 2020,  at 1 p.m. in the Boulder County District Courts.  

(Originally published in the January 30, 2020, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)