In Re the People of the State of Colorado v. Bryan Roberson

Summary

The court held that a probationer may invoke the Fifth Amendment during sex-offender treatment when answers could incriminate him, and probation may not be revoked merely because he refuses to provide those answers. Roberson's refusal to answer whether he used or viewed child pornography was protected because it presented a realistic possibility of prosecution, and the threat of probation revocation created unconstitutional compulsion. The court remanded for specific findings about whether questions concerning post-trial sexual fantasies also posed a reasonable danger of incrimination. Justice Coats, dissenting and joined by Justice Eid, would have found the compulsion analysis unresolved and declined to treat probation revocation itself as a prohibited substantial penalty.