Jury convicts former DA Myrl Serra of bond violation

Next trial set to start October 31

A Montrose jury deliberated for nearly three hours on Wednesday, August 31, ultimately finding former 7th Judicial District Attorney Myrl Serra guilty on all counts against him related to a bail bond violation.

Serra was convicted of a felony, violating his bail bond, which stipulated the rules of his release after he was arrested in September for unlawful sexual contact, official misconduct, and, later, criminal extortion.
Those charges stemmed from allegations that he made sexual advances towards several women who worked at the District Attorney’s Office in Montrose. He allegedly forced at least one woman to perform sexual favors for him.
A trial of those charges is scheduled to start on October 31.
In the trial that concluded last Wednesday, Serra was also convicted of misdemeanor harassment and violation of a protection order. All three charges were leveled against him after he, while in a Montrose store, confronted a potential witness in the misconduct case against him.
According to a report in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, Serra told the jury he was shopping for Christmas gifts with his son when he saw clothes on a rack moving and discovered the woman hiding behind the rack of clothes.
After seeing that the person was someone he was prohibited from making contact with, the Montrose Daily Press reported, Serra said, “I left the area immediately.”
He said, “I did not say anything to that person. I did not want any contact with that person.”
But the prosecution painted a different picture. Attorney Robert Shapiro told the jury, Serra walked toward the woman and told her, “I am invincible. Nobody tells me what to do in my town. You, Missy, you’re the one who needs to change,” the Daily Press reported.
The woman testified that Serra approached her in a way that she perceived as threatening, the Sentinel reported, and the jury saw it her way.
Serra won’t be sentenced until after a second trial dealing with felony counts of unlawful sexual contact and criminal extortion, as well as misdemeanor counts of official misconduct and indecent exposure.