The sole Aurora police officer convicted in the death of Elijah McClain is seeking to change his sentence from 14 months of jail work-release to in-home detention, telling a judge he is depressed, paranoid, sleeping poorly and has lost 30 pounds since beginning his part-time jail sentence.
Former officer Randy Roedema was convicted in October of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault in McClain’s 2019 death. McClain, an unarmed 23-year-old Black man who had committed no crime, was violently arrested by Aurora police and then injected by paramedics with an overdose of a powerful sedative, leading to his death.
Roedema was sentenced to 14 months of work-release in January and began serving that sentence in March. Under work-release, Roedema is allowed to leave the jail during the day in order to go to his job, but he must return after work and spend nights and weekends in jail. The motion does not say what job Roedema holds.
The 41-year-old’s “mental health and psychological condition is not conducive for work-release,” defense attorney Don Sisson wrote in a motion to convert the part-time jail sentence to home detention. Roedema can’t take his anxiety medication for fear it would create a positive drug test, Sisson wrote. Roedema is also struggling because he can’t go to church, Sisson wrote.
The former officer sleeps only three to four hours a night, his attorney wrote in the May 29 motion, and is serving time with an inmate who Roedema formerly supervised when he worked as a jail deputy, Sisson wrote. The attorney did not elaborate on the amount of contact between the two.
“Defendant Roedema’s PTSD is increased due to a constant fear of being attacked and feeling as though other inmates want to hurt him due to his prior law enforcement service,” Sisson wrote. “Roedema’s law enforcement background makes him a target for physical attacks, more so than the average inmate.”
Lawyers with the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, which prosecuted the case against Roedema, objected to the proposed sentence modification in a Monday court filing. First Assistant Attorney General Jason Slothouber argued that the district court no longer has jurisdiction to act on the case because Roedema has appealed his conviction to the Colorado Court of Appeals.
A spokesman for the AG’s office declined further comment.
In addition to the concerns about Roedema’s mental health, Sisson argued that Roedema would serve a longer sentence under home detention than he would on work-release, because of the way credit for “good time” is calculated. Roedema receives one day of “good time” credit for every day of work-release he serves, which essentially cuts his sentence in half.
On that schedule, he will complete his work-release sentence in about seven months — late October, Sisson wrote. There is no credit for “good time” in home detention, so Roedema would be required to finish the full remaining 10 months of his sentence should the sentence be changed to home detention.
Adams County District Court Judge Sean Finn did not immediately make a ruling on Roedema’s request.
Roedema was sentenced in January by Adams County District Court Judge Mark Warner, who at the time declined to send Roedema to prison. Prosecutors had sought up to the maximum of three years in prison on the convictions.
Roedema was one of three first responders convicted in McClain’s death after five were arrested and tried. Former paramedic Jeremy Cooper, convicted of criminally negligent homicide, was also sentenced to 14 months of work-release.
Former paramedic Peter Cichuniec, who was convicted of criminally negligent homicide and assault by drugging, was sentenced in March to five years in prison. The assault conviction carried a mandatory-minimum prison term of five years.
Two other Aurora police officers, Jason Rosenblatt and Nathan Woodyard, were acquitted by juries of all criminal charges in McClain’s death.
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