While there are still four outstanding investigations — on both the state and federal level — into the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man who died in late August 2019 after a violent encounter with members of the Aurora Police Department, the only charges made in the case so far are slowly disappearing. And they were made not against law enforcement authorities, but protesters who demonstrated last summer, demanding justice for McClain.
On May 6, 17th Judicial District DA Brian Mason announced that he was dismissing all outstanding felony and misdemeanor charges filed in his district against Lillian House, Joel Northam, Eliza Lucero, Terrance Roberts and Trey Quinn. “I have an ethical obligation to only proceed on charges my office can prove and to dismiss charges that we cannot prove,” Mason says in a statement on his decision. “My job is to do the right thing.”