2020 Colorado Revised Statutes
Title 2 - Legislative
Article 2. General Assembly
Section 2-2-406. Contempt of either house.
(1) The senate and the house of representatives may each punish by imprisonment not extending beyond the same session of the general assembly, as and for a contempt, disorderly conduct of its members, officers, employees, or others committed in the immediate view of the senate or the house of representatives and tending to interrupt its proceedings. Imprisonment for contempt shall be effected by a warrant in the name of the people of the state, signed by the presiding officer of the house in which the contempt occurred, directed to the chief security officer of such house or the state police and ordering the apprehension of the contemnor and the delivery of him to the sheriff of the county in which the alleged contempt occurred for detention by said sheriff in accordance with such warrant, subject to such bail as may be set by the district court of the county in which the alleged contempt occurred. A finding of contempt and imprisonment therefor shall not constitute a bar to any other proceeding, civil or criminal, for the same act.
(2) Notice of the proposed contempt citation shall be published in a resolution of the house in which the contempt occurred approved first by a majority of a committee and then of the house itself. If the contempt is committed before the house itself rather than a committee thereof, a resolution of the house itself shall be sufficient. Persons actually named in the resolution shall be either personally served or otherwise be given notice in the same manner as is provided by law and the Colorado rules of civil procedure for acquisition of jurisdiction over the person in civil actions. The notice shall include:
A statement of the terms or substance of the offense which caused the citation to beissued;
A statement of the time and place of the hearing before the committee which firstpassed the contempt resolution or before the house in which the contempt occurred, as the case may be. The person to be cited shall be required to show cause why he should not be found in contempt. The time and place for hearing shall allow reasonable time to give the person to be cited notice of the charges against him and to prepare an appropriate defense concerning them.
The contempt hearing shall give the person to be cited an opportunity for an oralpresentation before the committee or before the house in which the contempt occurred, whichever is holding the hearing, for submission of written arguments, and for the right to counsel at the hearing.
A person to be cited shall be found in contempt and shall be punished therefor onlyafter a majority of the committee which initiated the contempt proceeding finds, after notice and a hearing which satisfies the provisions of subsections (2) and (3) of this section, that the person cited has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt to have committed a contempt as defined in this section. The committee shall state in a report to the full house the reasons for its finding. If the full house affirms by a majority vote the finding of the committee, the cited person shall be held in contempt.
If the contempt citation is initiated by the house itself because of a contempt committed before the house, the person to be cited shall be punished for contempt if the house itself finds, by a majority vote, after notice and a hearing which satisfies the provisions of subsections (2) and (3) of this section, that the person cited has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt to have committed a contempt as defined in this section.
Source: L. 73: p. 682, § 1. C.R.S. 1963: § 63-10-6.
