By David Grant Long

A Dolores man who received a 20-year prison sentence in 1993 for sexually molesting a child will have to serve the remainder of his time without the chance for a new trial, the Colorado Supreme Court recently decided.

After escaping twice from the Montezuma County Jail and being recaptured, Dennis Kyler, now 42, had ultimately pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault on a child by a person in a position of trust, as well as one count of escape. He had originally been charged with multiple counts of sexual assault on four different children ranging from seven to 14 years of age and two counts of escape.

Kyler, who had previous convictions for sexual offenses and escape in California, had been kept in handcuffs and legs shackles during the day and was chained to his bunk at night after he was brought back the second time. After 10 days of this confinement, he had agreed to the plea bargain.

During his sentencing, Kyler stated that his guilty pleas were being made voluntarily, but later maintained they had been coerced by the inhumane and unconstitutional conditions under which he was being detained. At a district-court hearing in which he asked to withdraw his guilty plea, Kyler claimed he’d been in such great and constant discomfort from the chains and lack of sleep that he would have agreed to plead guilty to just about any crime to get sent elsewhere.

Last year the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that Kyler had been improperly shackled by the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Department and ordered further hearings to determine if his pleas had been the result of this treatment.

But earlier this month the Supreme Court overturned that ruling, saying that whether the shackling was a violation of Kyler’s constitutional rights is not the issue.

"The constitutionality of a defendant’s restraints at the time of entry of his pleas is not relevant to determine whether he entered the plea voluntarily," the high court declared.

The Supreme Court’s decision affirmed the earlier ruling of the 22nd Judicial District Court, which held that Kyler had not complained about the shackling or mentioned he was in pain when he entered the pleas.

A woman who later confessed to helping Kyler make his getaway after his first breakout told police he’d forced her to drive him and a fellow escapee out of town by threatening to harm her 12-year-old daughter, whom he noted was "a pretty little girl."