Man sentenced to sex offender probation, work release in Boulder sex assault case
Jul. 23—A man convicted of raping a woman in Boulder he met through a dating app in 2019 was sentenced to work release and probation and avoided prison, as the judge in the case again called out Colorado's sentencing laws that gave the courts "a very limited number of options" for sex assault cases.
Drelan Lovato, 24, was found guilty by a jury in April of sexual assault by force of threat following a three-day trial.
On Friday, Boulder District Judge Thomas Mulvahill sentenced Lovato to 20 years to life of sex offender intensive supervised probation along with two years of work release. He will also have to register as a sex offender, though Mulvahill said he did not meet the criteria to be classified as a sexually violent predator.
Mulvahill remanded Lovato into custody at the Boulder County Jail, where he will wait in custody for a work release bed.
Lovato could have been sentenced to prison, but any Department of Corrections sentence would have fallen under Colorado's indeterminate sentencing law for sex offenders, in which inmates must complete treatment and apply for release, essentially turning any prison term into a possible life sentence.
Mulvahill, as he has in past sex assault cases, said the "shortsightendess" of the law limits judges to essentially a sentence to probation or a possible sentence to life in prison.
"Neither one of those options in this case is ideal," Mulvahill said. "I'm going to keep saying the same thing in these cases and hopefully the Legislature will realize they are not doing the community or the offenders any favors by giving me but two options."
Mulvahill in this case said the reason he opted for probation in this case is that the pre-sentence investigation and statements by Lovato led him to believe that Lovato would be amenable to treatment. The report also deemed Lovato a low to moderate risk to reoffend.
"Under the circumstances that were presented and what I see in the presentence report, I think you are someone who could benefit significantly from a probationary sentence with offender treatment," Mulvahill said.
Lovato did make a statement to the court before his sentence, in which he asked for a probation sentence so he could "give back to the community" and "not be a burden on society."
"I do apologize for anything I've done wrong, and I do truly feel sorry for (the victim)," Lovato said.
But Boulder County Chief Trial Deputy Catrina Weigel asked for a prison sentence, noting that she felt Lovato had not taken responsibility for his actions and was "flippant."
"He takes no responsibility, he minimizes his actions, he blames the victim," Weigel said. "That's not a probation candidate."
Weigel also read a statement from the victim in the case, who wrote that while what Lovato did "impacted me very negatively... I will not let this define me."
"I am a survivor and I am stronger and braver for testifying," she wrote.
Boulder District Attorney Michael Dougherty released a statement on the case, thanking the victim for coming forward and taking the stand.
"The DA's Office wants to acknowledge the courage of the victim in coming forward and going through this difficult process," Dougherty said in the statement. "It is because of the victim, as well as the hard work by the investigators, that this defendant was convicted of a felony sex offense and will have to register as a sex offender. Our office strongly recommended that this man be sentenced to state prison because of the harm he caused to the victim and the risk this conduct presents to our community."
Mulvahill said he recognized the impact of the assault on the victim, and said he hoped the two-year work release sentence, the maximum he could impose with a probationary sentence, would at least provide her some closure.
As for Lovato, Mulvahill said his reading of the pre-sentence report was that there was some level of acceptance and that what he mostly gathered from the reports is that Lovato was "fairly immature" when it came to relationships.
But Mulvahill said "it doesn't excuse the fact that it was a sexual assault," and said Lovato needed to comply with probation and treatment going forward.
"Let me be real clear," Mulvahill told Lovato. "You're going to get a chance on probation, but if you can't do it or you won't do it, you're going to go to the Department of Corrections and it will be on an indeterminate sentence."
