A 36-year-old Aurora man has been jailed for investigation of felony assault after he allegedly used an “MMA style takedown” move on a 69-year-old defense lawyer, CBS News Colorado has learned. The alleged attack by Daniel Alexander Ashby on H. Michael Steinberg left the attorney hospitalized and facing surgery.
According to interviews and police reports obtained by CBS Colorado, Ashby was attending a court hearing Monday related to his 12-year-old nephew, who was a victim in a fatal crash in July in Aurora. Court records show Ashby’s nephew was riding an electric scooter in a marked crosswalk on East Iliff Avenue. Police say the boy had activated the crossing signal, but Christopher Ramirez-Rodriguez, 19, failed to stop for the red light and struck and killed the boy. He is charged with careless driving resulting in death.
Steinberg was representing Ramirez-Rodriguez. Before the Monday afternoon hearing started, an Arapahoe County Sheriff’s deputy wrote that Ashby “aggressively approached Steinberg trying to see the defendant Steinberg was representing.” The arrest document says Steinberg “told Ashby to go into the courthouse and pushed him back to create space as Ashby was in his face. Ashby then performed a ‘MMA style takedown’ on Steinberg causing him to become unconscious.”
A court spokesperson said there was no video of what happened in the hallway.
Ryan Brackley, Assistant District Attorney in Arapahoe County, told CBS Colorado “It doesn’t actually happen that people go hands-on on defense attorneys, prosecutors or judges. But it is a very emotional place to be for everybody involved.”…