Georgetown – A woman who accused a Breckenridge man of savagely beating and raping her has a long criminal history but has served virtually no jail time, marking a double standard that shows bias by prosecutors, a defense attorney argued Wednesday.
Erik Rockne, 39, the son of one of the founders of the Breckenridge ski area and a prominent real-estate agent, was hauled to jail after a relatively minor violation of his bond conditions, while the woman has two felony convictions and other transgressions that have not prompted the Summit County district attorney to charge her with probation violations. “It just goes to show there are two different levels of justice: one when you are an incredibly important witness, and one when you are in the rifle scope of a prosecutor,” defense attorney Larry Pozner said.
He argued that District Attorney Mark Hurlbert has a conflict and should be replaced by a special prosecutor because the woman is a witness in one case while she is a defendant in another in Hurlbert’s jurisdiction.
Rockne is accused of attempted murder, assault and rape in the Nov. 29 confrontation at his Breckenridge home that put his accuser – a former longtime girlfriend – in the hospital, near death, with internal bleeding from a ruptured bladder.
Rockne claims that he kneed her in the stomach in self-defense only after she attacked him.
Since then, the 40-year-old woman has been charged with arson, criminal mischief and domestic violence after allegedly torching the apartment of her subsequent paramour, a former Summit County judge, in April.
And prior to that, she pleaded guilty to felony prescription fraud and felony drug possession and had been investigated in five other felony cases, all while serving on probation in four drunken-driving cases, Pozner said.
“She has had an opportunity to be convicted of 20 felonies. The Summit County prosecutor has won a conviction of one felony. She has had four opportunities to be charged as a habitual criminal, and she’s been charged zero times,” said Pozner, of Denver.
Rockne, meanwhile, was jailed in February for violating a “no contact” order after he spotted the woman’s adult son in town walking on crutches and gave him a ride to his destination a short distance away, Pozner said.
Hurlbert countered that the state probation department – not his office – is responsible for charging convicts with a probation violation, and charging the woman with the latest crimes shows that he is not biased.
“Quite honestly, judge, it’s probably better if she’s in prison,” Hurlbert acknowledged. “She won’t commit any more crimes. She won’t drink.”
Clear Creek County Judge Rachel Olguin-Fresquez ruled against installing a special prosecutor, saying she didn’t know whether the decision to file charges against the woman would hurt the prosecution’s case.
