Tragically, in 2019, my fiancée took her own life. What began as one of the most heartbreaking, devastating experiences of my life, turned into an unending nightmare. The police arrested me after I called 911 because they believed we had been arguing. But then, with scant investigation, prosecutors immediately charged me with murder and imprisoned me for 72 days without bail.
A jury eventually found me not guilty, but only after my attorney learned a prosecutor purposefully withheld evidence exonerating me. That may be unimaginable in America — but it happened to me. And when it did, I learned the hard truth: prosecutors (unlike almost any other lawyer or professional) enjoy absolute immunity, meaning both the wrongly accused and victims of crime have no recourse, and prosecutors cannot be sued for the damage they cause.
I learned firsthand that when attorneys fail to fulfill their oaths of office, just like a doctor or police officer, the consequences can be dire – even life-ending. This becomes even more egregious when that failure is purposeful, yet not all attorneys are held equal under the law.
I was wrongly incarcerated and prosecuted, even though the forensic pathologist refused to rule my fiance’s death a homicide. Only weeks after my arrest — while I remained behind bars — Denver’s own chief deputy crime lab director and the lead Denver homicide detective advised the prosecutor of their opinions that the death was not a homicide, but a suicide. Even though the prosecutor knew this critical information that would have exonerated me, the prosecutor purposefully withheld this information from myself and my defense team for nearly 8 months. I was eventually acquitted only after these opinions were forcibly revealed in response to a court order.
Who was that prosecutor? Chief Deputy Dan Cohen from the Denver District Attorney’s office. The judge, clearly outraged, issued a sanction allowing my lawyer to cross-examine the witnesses about their favorable opinions — but otherwise faced no consequences. His law license remained intact, and his boss excused the behavior.
Imagine my outrage and disappointment when I read a recent Denver Post article covering judges dismissing other cases in which Chief Deputy Daniel Cohen failed to disclose critical and favorable evidence to the accused. In the most recent case, this was again not a clerical oversight or an isolated misstep. In fact, the judge in the case ruled, “At this point in time, I can’t find that it’s anything other than willful given the number of times this issue has been addressed with this particular counsel.” The Post article pointed out that there have been at least seven other discovery violations committed by the Denver District Attorney’s Office since February of 2025.
These are real Coloradan’s lives on the line. Yet the wrongly accused, like myself, have no recourse to hold prosecutors accountable.
This story shows that even when judges grow frustrated with prosecutors’ misconduct, their tools are limited. They can allow broader cross-examination or dismiss a case — but they cannot punish the prosecutor. The repeated violations we see prove that these sanctions, while appropriate, do little to deter misconduct. And with Mr. Cohen still abusing his power five years after egregiously breaking the rules in my case, it’s clear the Denver District Attorney’s office isn’t imposing serious discipline either.
Prosecutors are the most powerful lawyers in America. They decide who to criminally charge, when and what crimes to allege, whether to offer leniency, what evidence to turn over and what sentence to pursue. As I now personally understand, they have an immense amount of power to impact the lives and families of both the guilty and the innocent.
Given this power, you’d expect prosecutors to be held to higher standards of accountability. Instead, the opposite is true. Misconduct is brushed off as business as usual, denied and excused at every turn, and much of it never comes to light. Even when caught red-handed, prosecutors keep their jobs and their law licenses, shielded from any liability for damage they cause. In any other profession, mine included as an architect, such deliberate abuses would end a career.
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Many prosecutors do act with integrity. But as this story makes clear, absolute immunity has bred a culture of impunity that leaves them above the very law they’re meant to enforce. But no one should be above the law.
When prosecutors break the rules, justice breaks down. People like myself suffer a potential wrongful conviction. Our careers and families are destroyed, our reputations are ruined, and we suffer crushing financial loss. At the same time victims of crime are denied justice and finality. The result is a system the public can’t trust. If Colorado is serious about restoring trust and protecting the rights of every Coloradan, it must reform the law so prosecutors can finally be held accountable.
Micah Kimball is a licensed architect and general contractor who designs and builds thoughtful spaces. After a prosecution that derailed his career and life, he now works with Protect Ethical Prosecutors to promote fairness and reform.
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