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Kellner will use grand jury to go after fentanyl traffickers

REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL OF COLORADO

Newsroom El Comercio de Colorado

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What is the pressing issue for the Colorado Attorney General?

John Kellner: The attorney general of Colorado is the state’s chief law enforcement official. So the most important thing that I need to do and tackle is actually turning back this crime wave that we’re in right now. We’ve got a 25 year high for violent crime. We’re number one in the country for car thefts and bank robberies. We’ve got skyrocketing fentanyl overdose deaths. We have the 47th worst crime rate now in the entire country. The attorney general has a role in protecting the people of this state. And I will do that. Kellner will use grand jury to go after fentanyl traffickers.

I want to be clear for anybody that reads this or sees this. My opponent supported changes to the bond bill that would have made it so that police couldn’t arrest somebody for a class four or five and six felonies. That would have made it practically. They had to give him a ticket, essentially, and hope that they show up in court. And that’s most car thefts. My opponent supported a bill that said you probably can’t even give somebody a cash bond, even if it is appropriate, even if the judge thinks that it should be done. You know, that is wrong for Colorado.

What do you think about the bond system in place in Colorado?

JK: We need to ensure that we’re keeping people safe in our communities. And I’ll give you some examples here. And when it comes to car theft in the 18th Judicial District, where I’m the district attorney, the largest judicial district in the state of Colorado, with about 1.1 million people, and we looked at our people that are stealing cars, and we found that on average they’ve got five prior misdemeanor convictions, more than three prior felony convictions.

Now they’ve got two other pending cases, usually outside of our jurisdiction. So what’s happening right now is you’ve got people that are catching and releasing criminals back onto the streets to make more victims. That is unacceptable. We need an attorney general who will stand up for people and fight to change that system to ensure these people are held accountable.

Would you advice the governor of Colorado to defy a federal law like Lindsay Graham’s abortion banning law?

JK: Where Colorado has the right to decide its own abortion policy, not the federal government. This is an issue for the state to decide, and the people of our state have decided it both through the legislature and at the ballot box. So, yes, I would advise that we would challenge any sort of federal overreach that tries to change Colorado’s law, which currently protects reproductive rights in our state.

Send a message to Colorado’s Wester Slope

JK: Right now, we’re in a 22 year megadrought on the Colorado River, and we’ve got 40 plus million people that rely upon the water that comes from our headwater state. So that’s a huge concern for us moving forward. There are calls for people saying we need to renegotiate the Colorado River Compact. I disagree with that.

We need to fight against anybody who thinks we should renegotiate that because Colorado’s probably not going to come out as a winner if that were to happen. We also need to ensure that the federal government is not encroaching on or impacting people’s property rights with their water in the state of Colorado.

You know, Colorado has set for the longest time its own appropriations of water, its own allocations. And we do need to ensure that system that has been effective for very long continues, you know, to ensure that people that work in the agricultural industry, in the recreational industry, have access to the water they need to continue on with their businesses.

What would you ask Phil Weiser?

JK: I’d ask him why he supported a bill to allow convicted felons to now have guns. I’d ask him why he supported a bill that made it a misdemeanor to steal a car that’s valued at $2,000 or less when it used to be a felony. You know, these are hurting some of the people in Colorado that can least afford it.

I would ask him why he tried to advocate for a bill that would have made it harder for police to arrest people that commit serious crimes and made it impossible for judges to potentially hold those people in custody. So, what we need to do right now is use the grand jury more effectively.

How do you plan to use the grand jury?

JK: And the statewide grand jury has the power to go after the fentanyl traffickers who are peddling this poison in our communities. That is probably the most powerful law enforcement tool in the state. And we need a statewide solution and statewide leadership to go after the people who are trafficking these drugs.

I’ll do that as attorney general. We’re going after the drug traffickers and the dealers. We need to help people that are struggling with addiction to get clean and sober and have productive lives. And a lot of that comes from rehabilitative programs. But when it comes to the people who are peddling this poison, you know, we’ve got to go after them aggressively and make sure that they cannot hurt people by distributing fentanyl, causing hundreds and hundreds of deaths in our communities.

Would you keep any of the current programs implemented by Weiser?

JK: Consumer fraud protection is an important issue that we need to continue educating people about. This is something I’ve seen quite a bit as a district attorney, and it’s very preventable. And a lot of people who are scammers and fraudsters are really trying to. Go after the elderly. They’re trying to scam them out of their hard-earned money. And that’s something that the attorney general’s office has worked on in the past and will continue to do, which is educating people about how to avoid these scams.

Do you like sports?

JK: Yeah, I like football and I like soccer. So, you know, I watch all kinds of sports, love watching hockey and seeing the Avs win the Stanley Cup, you know, But probably more than anything, I like watching my kids play.