On Jan. 14 at the Garfield County Courthouse in Glenwood Springs, Ben Sollars was sworn in as the new 9th Judicial District Deputy District Attorney.

For Sollars, who has over two decades of experience as a prosecutor, his new position as elected DA for the Garfield, Pitkin and Rio Blanco counties is a dream come true. 

“There was a time in my career where I had applied to become a judge and was involved in that process,” Sollars said. “As a part of that process, I had to write a single page article about why it was that I wanted to be a judge. When I thought about that, and ultimately put pen to paper, I realized that I was very committed to the communities that I lived in and very committed to public service.”

---

---

“There’s no greater job than being the district attorney where you can perform a public service and be committed to the community,” he added.

His long career as a prosecutor began with advice from his best friend’s father, who was a lawyer and suggested Sollars go to law school. 

---

---

“I studied sociology in my undergrad, so I’ve always been very driven by understanding what makes people do the things that they do,” Sollars said. “Those two scenarios created the perfect opportunity to become a prosecutor…you get to practice law and you’re always wondering how it is that people did the things that they did or what we can do to prevent that from happening again. A lot of sociology and law get married together there.”

Originally from rural Illinois, Sollars moved to Colorado in 2000 to attend law school at the University of Denver. Colorado then became his home. 

“I was in my first year of law school, and I went home for Thanksgiving to see my family,” Sollars said. “I remember driving my 1989 Honda Accord from the Denver International Airport and seeing the mountain view. It was like, yeah, I’m never leaving. So that was the moment I knew that Colorado was for me.”

Sollars admits his initial view of the criminal justice system was formed from watching too many episodes of “Law and Order.” 

“That was my initial basis of what I thought being a criminal prosecutor was,” Sollars said. “That it’d all be done in one hour and have a great ending. You don’t always have it done in an hour and you don’t always get the great ending, but you do the work because you love it.”

After graduating, Sollars worked in the 7th Judicial District and for the Jefferson County DA’s office. He moved to Glenwood Springs in 2017 after accepting a job offer to be former DA Jeff Cheney’s assistant district attorney. 

Married with three boys and a dog, Sollars loves connecting with the outdoors while living the small town lifestyle he remembers from his childhood. 

“I am an avid outdoors person, love to fish and raft and snowboard and trail run,” Sollars said. “Being connected with the outdoors, it allows me to work hard while I’m working and play hard while I’m playing.”

Under Cheney, Sollars learned the importance of investing in his team, recognizing their goals  and providing opportunities for them to build on their successes. 

“Jeff Cheney was a great teacher and a great leader,” Sollars said. “Jeff has always taught me to invest in our people, and that’s something that I have taken from him and will strive to do and make my own.”

The cases Sollars considers most memorable are those where his team, everyone from legal assistants to investigators, worked together to achieve a just outcome. 

“I can’t say one is more memorable than the other,” Sollars said. “My northern star here is service, and when I see others work together to perform that service, that fills my heart.”

“We don’t always achieve the result that we think is just and appropriate,” he added. “It’s difficult when you have to look a victim in the eye and say, ‘I’m sorry that we weren’t able to achieve justice for you.’ Those are the darkest days that we have as prosecutors.”

As Sollars stated when he ran for DA, his priority is community safety, and he emphasizes a victim-centered approach to leadership and prosecution. 

That means meeting with victims early on in the process to establish the level of engagement they want to have with the DA’s office and determine what their expectations are. 

It also means understanding what the DA’s office needs to do to meet each victim where they’re at.

“You’re at a funeral of a loved one. You have three people there and one’s laughing, one’s crying and one is completely stoic. Which one is acting appropriately with respect to what has been an awful situation?” Sollars said. “I don’t think anyone is acting inappropriately. We all deal with trauma differently. To be trauma-informed is to understand how trauma has impacted the victim of the crime, to be mindful of that and to try to meet them where they are.”

During his term as DA, Sollars looks forward to continuing to serve his community.

 “I’m just grateful to the community for placing that public trust in me,” Sollars said. “That’s not something that I take for granted. I’m grateful to the community for doing that and I look forward to serving the community to the best of my ability.”