Buck Arieu, Nederland. The Nederland Downtown Development Authority sponsored a workshop on September 24, 2019, to help local business owners better understand their legal rights in dealing with visitors that create a disturbance. The NDDA sponsored this workshop as a result of events that took place in Nederland over the summer.

Boulder lawyer and former Nederland resident Mark Cohen gave a presentation to attendees on several relevant topics. Mr. Cohen began by explaining that a business owner leasing space generally has the exclusive right to possess the premises, including the right to ask people to leave. Mr. Cohen explained that under a Colorado law a visitor to a business that refuses to leave the premises after being asked by the business owners (or the owner’s agent) is guilty of criminal trespass.

Mr. Cohen also explained when a business owner is eligible to seek a civil protection order and the process for seeking one. 

Regarding common areas at the Caribou Shopping Center, Mr. Cohen explained that the rights of third parties to assemble there depend on whether it is a public forum. Mr. Cohen said the presence of the police station would be one factor in that analysis, but other factors a court would look at might include the extent to which the town had been involved in the development of the shopping center. Mr. Cohen said anyone has the right to go to the police station for legitimate reasons, but that even if the courts determined the shopping center (which is on private property) is a public forum, the shopping center owner could still impose reasonable content neutral restrictions on the activities of those who are not patronizing businesses in the shopping center.  Those who did not adhere to those regulations could be asked to leave and cited for trespass if they did not.

Mr. Cohen talked briefly about the right of a business owner to exclude firearms. He explained that in Colorado it is not a crime for a person to bring a firearm into a store even if the business has posted a “No firearms” sign, but that a business owner may ask a person carrying a firearm to leave, and that failure to leave after being asked would be a trespass.

Mr. Cohen also discussed the Colorado laws regarding audio and video recording of visitors to a business.

Attendees found the workshop useful and were pleased with Mr. Cohen’s willingness to answer questions. Mr. Cohen’s PowerPoint presentation is available through the NDDA.

You can contact the Nederland Downtown Development Authority at ndda.ed@gmail.com.

(Originally published in the October 3, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)