A Douglas County Deputy District Attorney who is running for a statehouse seat has a long history of prosecutorial missteps and choices that appear to belie his campaign’s tough-on-crime theme. 23rd Judicial District Senior Deputy District Attorney Nate Marsh is looking oust state Rep. Bob Marshall (D-Highlands Ranch), one of the few Democrats elected in blood red Douglas County. Marsh has endorsements from his former boss (and another former Colorado attorney general candidate) John Kellner, as well as the Colorado Chamber of Commerce, and the Colorado State Fraternal Order of Police, among others. Marsh is running a “law and order” campaign that lists “public safety” as its top issue, highlighting what he sees as failures of Democratic criminal justice policies.
“These victims deserve better and the people of Highlands Ranch deserve better than what we’re getting right now,” said Marsh during a Dec. 16 appearance on the Dan Caplis Show, hosted by his boss, District Attorney George Brauchler.
“It hurts me because the office loses one of its best and certainly most prolific trial attorneys while you go do this,” said Brauchler. “But honestly, we need you at the legislature.”
Marsh is campaigning on his reputation as a prosecutor, but a close examination of his record shows a history of prosecutorial missteps at odds with his campaign claims.
“I think that what we really need to do is win these races because what we can start doing then is start changing some of these laws and actually stop some of these really terrible laws, these offender-friendly laws, and really start putting the focus back on the victims of crime, the real people who got hurt, who didn’t ask for any of these things to happen to them, and really, that’s where the focus needs to be,” said Marsh in his on-air interview.
In 2024 the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that Marsh excluded “critical” evidence that gave the jury a “misleading impression,” resulting in an innocent man being wrongly convicted of a child sex crime. As the Gazette reported last year, “a district judge allowed prosecutors to misuse a Colorado law designed to protect sexual assault victims, cherry-picking DNA results, and excluding evidence that did not fit their narrative in a murky case.”
According to reporting from Colorado Politics, Marsh argued to the jury that it should not worry about the absence of Hood’s DNA from the victim because “every woman’s body will handle DNA differently.”
On appeal, Hood maintained jurors should have heard the whole story.
“While his DNA was absent from the swab of [the victim’s] external genitalia, three other DNA profiles were found,” wrote public defender Casey Mark Klekas. “Presenting that evidence was not an invasion of [the victim’s] privacy. It was the truth. The State doesn’t have a right to mislead the jury so it can get a conviction.”
Marsh was also involved in a 2020 where a sex offender — a pastor from Fellowship of the Rockies in Colorado Springs — was given five years of probation after sending sexual messages to a 16 year-old. According to the Gazette, “Marsh called the sentence ‘an opportunity for Mr. Houlihan,’ noting that if the defendant failed to stay out of trouble he could be re-sentenced to prison.” Republicans in Colorado in recent years have railed against what they claim are Democrat’s failures to hold sex offenders accountable.
“I really want to readdress this cashless bail because what I’m hearing and what I am hearing from business owners as well as our law enforcement communities, we’re playing catch and release,” said Marsh to Brauchler.
In 2015, as part of a case in El Paso County, Marsh missed three felonies in an advisement hearing, and because the judge didn’t read them Jimmie Brewer, who was charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor for sex crimes against a child, received a $5,000 bond that was later raised to $50,000 after reporting by KRDO.
In 2017, Marsh clashed with Colorado Springs Police Department accident investigator Jeffrey Rymer over a case that involved charging a man with child abuse for a traffic accident, a charge the veteran detective called “unheard of.” According to reporting from the Gazette, “Prosecutor Nathaniel Marsh unsuccessfully sought to bar Rymer from voicing his conclusions, arguing there wasn’t a sufficient legal basis for the officer to do so. Marsh also requested a bench conference when the defense asked to have Rymer recognized as an expert witness. The conversation happened out of earshot of the jury and gallery, but the judge ultimately accepted him as an expert and allowed him to convey his conclusions.”
Marsh did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
