Republican District Attorney Challenges ‘Broken Sentencing’ in Blue State with Tough Stance on Crime

A Republican district attorney known for his firm stance on crime is leveraging his extensive experience in handling some of Colorado’s most notorious cases to tackle criminal activities across the predominantly Democratic state.

In January, George Brauchler became the pioneering district attorney for Colorado’s newly established 23rd Judicial District. This marks the first occasion in over six decades that a new judicial district has been created in Colorado.

Earlier, he served as the DA for the 18th Judicial District, where he was involved in prosecuting some of the state’s most significant mass shooting incidents, including those at an Aurora movie theater and Columbine High School.

“I was a very young prosecutor when Columbine happened, and Columbine was the high school immediately to the south of where I graduated from high school,” Brauchler told Fox News Digital during an interview. “And so, when it occurred to be assigned to prosecute the felonies out of that, I thought at the time that would be the biggest, worst case I would ever handle, and I was wrong and that’s an amazing revelation to come to in this job.”

A woman embraces her daughter after the Columbine High School shooting. (AP/File)

“I’ll tell you one thing that sticks out to me that’s odd is that I’ve made a real point of telling the public, even before I took office, we’re going to be an office that stands for the rule of law, and that if people come down here to steal from us or victimize us, they ought to expect to be incarcerated,” Brauchler said. “That message has been so overwhelmingly received and in a positive way, like people clap when I say that.”

Brauchler added that when he started working in his field 30 years ago and had this same messaging, it would have been a “yawn fest.”

“People would have been like, ‘Duh, that’s what prosecutors and police do.’ But that’s how far we’ve shifted in the other direction,” Brauchler said. 

When asked about other high-profile cases like the Menendez brothers’ case in California, Brauchler said “there’s no good message that comes out of these two ever walking out of prison.”

“I remember when these cases happened, and I followed them like everybody else,” Brauchler said. “But this was a brutal, planned murder for the most selfish reasons possible. Anything they come up with at this point, by way of excuse, has already been air-dried in front of the jury and rejected when they were convicted. There’s no good message for America that comes out of these guys ever taking a free breath again.”

Brauchler said what is troubling about the Menendez brothers’ case being brought back up is that “every time something like this happens and someone sees any amount of success, it encourages others to do this.”

“You have to believe that there are any number of defense attorneys out there who are willing to shoot for the notoriety or the paycheck. In order to try to capture something like this, I’m not denigrating them. I know that’s business, but the answer should be that we should forget about the Menendez brothers.” 

Brauchler said what the Menendez brothers’ case highlights is something that has been happening since the Aurora theater shooting that is amplifying killers. 

“There has been a real concerted effort by decent people and many in the media to no longer amplify the killers; like, we should be focused on the victims. I would say since the Aurora theater shooter, I’ve said that guy’s name maybe four times through the whole trial, which lasted from Jan. 20th until April 7th, 2015. I said his name exactly twice. And that was by design,” Brauchler explained. 

“And so here we are again, focused on the Menendez brothers and the Netflix things about the Menendez brothers. And I understand that, but we should really de-glorify the criminals and focus more on the victims and the crime that was committed. And I think that if you let these guys out, you do the opposite.”

Brauchler added that there are even studies now about the correlation between the amount of notoriety that a criminal gets and then copycat-type crimes.

“I’ll give you an example with Columbine. The STEM school mass shooting that I covered, both of those shooters had passing fascination with those Columbine shooters. We had a near-mass shooting at another high school right down the road from my kid’s high school. They both had a fascination with the Columbine shooters and the Aurora theater shooter. Guess which case he researched before he left his apartment back on July the 19th to go murder these people? Columbine. So, the more notorious an event or some people become, it does have an effect on other folks,” Brauchler said. 

“I get it, we have to report the bad guy or bad girl at least once,” Brauchler continued. “Then after that, let’s not talk about them anymore. Let’s talk about the crime. Let’s talk about the victims, and let’s go to court.”