September 25, 2025 02:09 PM UTC

A Few More Words About That Bipartisan Criminal Competency Law

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• by: Colorado Pols

As 9NEWS’ Jeremy Jojola reports, there’s been a new development in an ongoing case out of Weld County that, since we discussed the political misuse of this case previously, we are obliged to also update:

Two weeks after the release from jail of a man whom law enforcement called dangerous, that man is back in custody…

Ephraim Debisa was wanted for trespassing after University of Northern Colorado Police said he was spotted with a gun inside a student apartment complex on Tuesday. Police had received a report that included a social media video that showed Debisa dancing and holding a gun.

…Two weeks ago, law enforcement officials in Weld County held a news conference in which they said Colorado’s mental competency laws forced them to release Debisa from their custody after he was arrested for attempted second-degree murder.

FOX 31 reported that the re-arrest of Ephraim Debisa took place with no violence, which is good since after his release by Weld County authorities into supposed legal limbo after being ruled incompetent to stand trial, he managed to obtain a gun:

He was re-arrested on Wednesday afternoon by the Greeley Police Department, UNC Police Department and the Weld County Sheriff’s Office. Debisa was arrested on charges of unlawful possession of a weapon on school grounds and trespass of an inhabited dwelling, both of which are felonies.

“The safety of our students and community is our top priority. While no one was threatened or harmed during yesterday’s incident, UNC PD collaborated with numerous local area law enforcement agencies to locate and apprehend him as quickly as possible. We are grateful for the support of our local, state, and federal partners and their efforts to ensure the safety of our community,” a letter to the campus community stated.

Before his release from jail earlier this month, Debisa was facing an attempted murder charge, among others. However, while awaiting trial, the issue of mental competency was raised, and the courts determined in July that his competency could not be restored, thus making him unable to stand trial.

After Debisa’s release early this month made national conservative news and social media headlines including being cited by Elon Musk on the far-right fever swamp formerly known as Twitter, Gov. Jared Polis responded that other provisions in Colorado law should have been available to prevent Debisa’s release until mental health treatment placement was available. It has been reported that a lack of available beds at the state mental hospital in Pueblo “forced” Weld County authorities to release Debisa with apparently no plan to commit him to the mental health treatment Colorado law prescribes. We’re not lawyers to sort out these dense details, but we will say that politically, Weld County Sheriff Steve Reams had better be right that there was absolutely no lawful way to hold this guy until a bed in Pueblo became available. Republicans are keen to exploit these kinds of events to jam the state’s majority Democrats, and if it does come out that Debisa could have been kept in jail, the script for this whole story flips.

If it doesn’t, Democrats face the usual uphill battle of getting the truth’s pants on while the lie has spread around the world. The legislation Republicans blame Democrats exclusively for passing, House Bill 24-1034, was in fact passed unanimously in the Colorado Senate, and with veto-proof bipartisan support in the House. In the Senate, the bill passed via what’s known as the “consent calendar”–a batch of allegedly non-controversial bills approved in bulk to save time for debate on more contentious bills. This bill that Republicans are trying today to blame solely on Democrats was in truth approved by every Republican Senator, including the new “establishment favorite” Republican candidate for governor Sen. Barb Kirkmeyer. In the House, two notable “no” votes did come from Rep. Gabe Evans and Kirkmeyer’s opponent in the GOP gubernatorial primary, Rep. Scott Bottoms. This puts Rep. Evans in the position of indirectly attacking one of his party’s favored candidates, and boosting a fringe contender in Bottoms.

Either way, it’s going to be a lot harder for Republicans to weaponize this predicament than they seem to believe. The murky and fractious relations within the GOP and in particular Weld County Republicans make it hard to know whether throwing Kirkmeyer under the bus was a mistake by Evans and fellow Republicans, or a deliberate choice. But the harder Republicans push the blame game over what we can all agree is a problem that must be resolved for straightforward public safety reasons, the greater the risk to the politician the Denver Post and others have anointed as the GOP’s “best candidate in years.”

Barb can’t have this both ways, and neither can Gabe.