Jennifer Emmi is an animal rights advocate, a loving mother and a devoted lawyer.
As a dedicated attorney and animal lover, Jennifer founded the Animal Law Center and created and ran a nonprofit animal rescue and rehabilitation center. Amidst her many professional milestones, Jennifer represented dog owners whose dogs were shot by police. The governor of Colorado signed a bill she drafted requiring police training for dog encounters as a result of Jennifer’s tireless dedication to the cause.
Outside of her successful career, Jennifer is a dedicated mother to three children. Friends and family describe Jennifer as a model wife and mother. In their divorce proceedings, even her ex-husband described her as an excellent mother.
On June 28, 2021, Jennifer Emmi plead guilty to retaliation against a witness or victim, stalking and solicitation of second-degree murder.
Jennifer Emmi plead guilty under a number of compromising circumstances. She was suffering from multiple medical conditions that had rapidly deteriorated during her imprisonment and for which officers had been withholding her medication for weeks. She had just been advised to plead guilty by her lawyers, Colin Bresee and Malcolm Seawell, who promised her that in exchange she would receive a lenient plea deal which would allow her to avoid prison time and go home to see her children. She was totally unaware that the murder-for-hire charges—by far the most severe of those brought against her—had been added just hours before the hearing, and thus could not know the extent of what she was about to admit to. She was not given access her official record until almost two years later, by which point it was far too late for her to argue that it was not only vastly different from what she'd been told, but was in fact riddled with errors, some as obvious as mistaken dates. There was no evidence of a potential plea deal anywhere in the record.
Jennifer has been raped, beaten and bruised during her time in prison. She’s been denied proper medical care, had her wheelchair taken away and put in solitary confinement with no toilet paper or female sanitary products. Prior to her conviction, she had been kept in solitary confinement for 22 straight weeks. Her mental and physical health have declined catastrophically and her facilities’ inability or refusal to provide her with necessary care amounts to criminal negligence.
Jennifer Emmi was recently moved to a facility in Virginia. Her move violated the following two critical requirements in the Interstate Compact that allow for such a transfer: (a) The inmate must have no physical or mental health issues; (b) The move must place the inmate closer to family (Jennifer’s family is in Colorado). The move came shortly after a new civil rights attorney brought on by Jennifer began demanding documents in Colorado.
Not only does Jennifer have a variety of physical health issues including being confined to a wheelchair, but all her family lives in Colorado. Being moved to Virginia threatens Jennifer Emmi's safety, health and emotional wellbeing.
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