A Pueblo man was illegally jailed on municipal contempt of court convictions earlier this year and should be freed immediately, the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado alleged Wednesday in a court petition that moved for the man’s release. Defendant Dean Lopez received 575 days in jail on the basis of petty crimes and missed court dates, and the city of Pueblo denied him basic rights that should be afforded to all defendants in criminal proceedings, the ACLU alleged in Pueblo District Court. RELATED: How Pueblo weaponizes contempt of court to inflate jail time for minor crimes Lopez never received charging documents outlining the basis for his contempt of court counts, which violates both the U.S. and Colorado constitutions, the petition alleges. “A criminal charge cannot spring from a court clerk’s notation in a docket or a judge’s handwritten notation at the bottom of a proposed plea agreement,” the petition reads. “The 575-day sentence that Mr. Lopez is currently serving, entirely for missed court dates, stemming from convictions the court had no jurisdiction to impose, cannot stand.” The legal action comes three months after a Denver Post investigation found Pueblo municipal judges used contempt of court charges to inflate jail sentences for defendants facing low-level, non-violent charges. Judges sent people to jail for months in cases that in other Colorado courts are punished by one or two days in jail, if that, The Post found. The practice was likely unconstitutional, experts told The Post, and had no precedent in other major Colorado cities. The newspaper found Pueblo Municipal Court’s judges routinely punished people for failing to appear for their court hearings, leading to spiraling jail sentences and thousands of dollars in fines, and that the practice especially impacted the city’s unhoused residents. Lopez, 55, was unhoused when he was sentenced. He missed his father’s funeral during his incarceration, which stemmed from a series of trespass offenses and a litany of missed court dates, according to the filing. Every time Lopez missed a hearing, the court issued a warrant for his arrest and “charged” him with contempt of court, a distinct offense in Pueblo punishable by up to 364 days in jail. These charges were mentioned in six types of documents, including bench warrants, a plea agreement, setting slips and pretrial packets. The court, however, never issued a criminal complaint for any charge of municipal contempt, the ACLU alleges. Defendants are constitutionally entitled to these documents so they can prepare a defense for their purported crimes. Only 90 days of Lopez’s 575-day jail sentence stemmed from the trespass charges, and he has served three times that in jail already, the petition alleges. Lopez’s plea deal included 31 counts of municipal contempt because of missed court dates, leading to 240 days in jail. The 90 days for trespassing were to be served concurrently, and the remaining 335 days in jail was time he received on contempt convictions that would have been suspended if he successfully had completed probation, but was imposed when he did not. “Almost all of Mr. Lopez’s sentence stems from prosecutions initiated by the clerk or the court comments without any charging documents sufficient to invoke the jurisdiction of the sentencing court,” the petition reads. Lopez, therefore, “is entitled to immediate release from custody for his contempt convictions, which are void,” the ACLU states. RELATED: How Colorado’s municipal courts became the state’s most punitive forum for minor crimes The civil rights organization filed a petition for writ of habeas corpus in Pueblo District Court, which asks the court to consider whether a person is unlawfully detained. “Mr. Lopez has lost not only his liberty, but also the irreplaceable experiences of attending his father’s funeral and watching his granddaughter grow up, because of the illegal sentence imposed by the city of Pueblo,” said Emma Mclean-Riggs, ACLU senior staff attorney. “We ask the court to recognize that Mr. Lopez’s sentence is illegal, and unconscionable, and release him immediately. We will not tolerate the continued civil rights violations being perpetrated on Pueblo’s most vulnerable residents.” Pueblo city representatives did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday afternoon. The Post, in its July investigation, could find no other major Colorado city that wielded contempt like Pueblo, which issued more than 1,700 contempt charges over an eight-month span. Municipal judges issued no such citations in that timeframe in Arvada, Boulder, Broomfield, Colorado Springs, Centennial, Greeley, Fort Collins and Lakewood. Aurora saw 12 contempt citations and Denver no more than 27 during that period. In other courts, judges typically issue a warrant for the arrest of defendants who miss court appearances, and those defendants are then jailed until their next court appearance to ensure they attend. In those scenarios, the failure to appear charges are remedial, not punitive, and usually do not carry their own jail sentences. Pueblo’s city attorney, Carla Sikes, who previously served as the municipal court’s presiding judge for eight years until becoming city attorney in March, defended the city’s contempt of court practices in a September City Council meeting. She said the practice was necessary and emphasized that the contempt of court sentences were agreed on by prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges when defendants entered plea agreements. Municipal courts have in recent years become Colorado’s most punitive forum for minor crimes, and The Post’s investigation underscores the lack of oversight for the state’s more than 200 municipal courts. The city courts operate individually with little scrutiny, civil rights experts say. Related Articles Courts | How Colorado’s municipal courts became the state’s most punitive forum for minor crimes Courts | Pueblo city attorney defends use of contempt of court citations after Denver Post investigation Courts | Pueblo Municipal Court has “challenging,” “deteriorating” workplace environment, review finds Courts | How Pueblo weaponizes contempt of court to inflate jail time for minor crimes Chela Lujan, a community organizer with El Movimiento Sigue, a grassroots activist group in Pueblo, said the Pueblo Municipal Court’s contempt of court practice “feels like an attack on our marginalized communities.” “It’s a direct attack on them,” Lujan said. “To have these contempt of court charges when no one else in Colorado is using them the way Pueblo is using them, it’s upsetting. There is more and more talk on how to clean up the streets and reduce crime, but all the options are hiding people away and locking them up.” The Post this summer also reported that an outside law firm hired to review the work culture inside Pueblo’s municipal court found a lack of supervision within the court contributed to a “challenging” and “deteriorating” workplace environment under then-presiding judge Sikes, who did little to ensure accountability. Court employees pointed to a toxic workplace culture rife with bullying, belittling and condescension. In May, Pueblo’s mayor appointed Nelson Dunford to be Sikes’ successor. Defense attorneys who practice before Pueblo’s city court said Dunford stopped issuing contempt charges for failure to appear, instead issuing arrest warrants — a practice that conforms with other Colorado courts. Sign up to get crime news sent straight to your inbox each day.