Michael David Czeponis of Nederland was convicted of nine counts including criminal mischief, sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, and cruelty to animals during a trial in the Boulder County Justice Center, from August 22 to August 31, 2022. Norma Angelica Sierra was the presiding judge. He was found not guilty on two counts.
Czeponis was found guilty on counts one, two, six, 10, and 11 for sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust with a pattern of abuse. He was found guilty of count 3, criminal mischief costing more than $1,000 and less than $5,000; count 4, assault in the third degree; count 5, cruelty to animals; and count nine, harassment. He was found not guilty of two counts, count 7, assault; and count 8, child abuse.
The judge dismissed the jury and set sentencing for November 18 at 3 p.m. Judge Sierra said because of the charges against him, Czeponis could not request bail and will remain in jail until the sentencing.
Czeponis was bound over for the trial during a preliminary hearing on January 27, 2020.
Czeponis was arrested out of state and extradited back to the Boulder County Jail on November 25, 2019.
According to a police report, in the beginning of August of 2019, the Nederland Police Department began investigating allegations of sexual assault and child abuse involving multiple female victims and one male suspect. The incidents occurred on several dates over several years.
The suspect was an adult. 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 victims in this incident, according to police.
Following jury selection, the prosecution called many witnesses. On Monday, August 29, the prosecution called Pamela Jean Scutter, a veterinarian. Her office is in Bailey, Colorado, and she has been practicing for 27 years.
She was in Nederland for several years. On October 31, 2019, she treated a dog that had been thrown off a balcony and had lameness in a leg.
A Rollinsville man, who had worked with Czeponis, said he had an opportunity to observe the children, who hung out together. He once observed Czeponis dancing with one of the girls and they were rubbing noses. “I wouldn’t dance with my daughter like that,” he said.
A local woman testified that she moved into the house with the Czeponis family when she was 16 years old and lived there for four years. She felt uncomfortable when she saw Czeponis cuddling on the floor with one of the girls. She also saw him “smacking the four kids on the butt.” Czeponis was intoxicated. He told her he would raise his daughters however he wanted. He acted like a parent to the girls from another family who were living with him.
Staff from a Nederland liquor store testified that she was able to access a credit card receipt from September 20, 2019, at 8:36 p.m. Czeponis had purchased a bottle of peppermint schnapps 90. A video showed him making the purchase.
The People called an employee of the hardware store, who saw Czeponis purchasing cans of spray paint. The hardware store also had a video of the transaction.
A member of the NPD testified that he was standing behind Czeponis in the liquor store when he purchased the schnapps. He was on duty and in uniform when he got a call that someone was spray-painting the Nederland Skate Park.
When he got to the park, he said he found graffiti with various symbols including a broken heart, and a sad face. One sentence said, “She lied to you.” Another said, “You fucked up Tadd.” The officer took photographs and also found a bottle of peppermint schnapps almost empty. He saw Czeponis’ vehicle with a drawing of a broken heart that matched the one at the skatepark.
The parks manager for Nederland Public Works, said that when graffiti is removed, the concrete must be resealed. It took two days to complete the work at a cost of $3,300.
The Prosecution showed a video of a long interview with one of the children. At first, the family lived by the reservoir in Nederland.
They moved to a house on Magnolia Road. Then they moved to North Dakota and when they came back to Nederland they were homeless for a while. Eventually they moved into the Black Forest, where Czeponis was remodeling an apartment. Meanwhile, a second family had lost their house and so they came to live with them.
One witness said Czeponis would drink and get mad easily. In the process of showing his anger at her, he also got mad at the family dog and threw it off the balcony.
Defense Attorney Mary Claire Mulligan told the court that counts 9 and 10 have not been proven with no dates established.
The Judge called the jury back on Tuesday, August 30 at 9 a.m. for instructions and closing arguments.
On Tuesday, day seven of the trial, the judge said the jury had heard all of the evidence in the trial. She gave the jury 32 instructions, requiring them to fill out a form for each count as to whether the defendant was guilty or not guilty.
For closing arguments, each side was allowed up to an hour. The Prosecution said the victims were his own family members. They heard from several of the children, who were subjected to isolation and fear.
The Prosecution asked that Czeponis be convicted of all 11 counts.
The Defense said the jury has seen a lot of evidence, but it’s also about what they didn’t hear. Every kid had a phone. Marshal Fine-Loven didn’t take the phones away. They have no evidence that the kids reached out. They didn’t get downloads from the phones. The jury didn’t hear that Czeponis was an easy target; he is eccentric and an outlier in the community.
Defense said they found inconsistencies among what the children said. She asked that the jury find him not guilty.
After closing arguments, the jury was dismissed to deliberate at about noon on Tuesday. The jury deliberated until about 4:50 p.m. on August 31, when they found Czeponis guilty of nine of 11 counts.