ROARING FORK BROADCASTING COMPANY
A former assistant basketball coach at Aspen High School pleaded not guilty this week to charges related to providing alcohol to minors, driving while under the influence and evading authorities.
The plea entered Monday by Christopher Woodring, 28, set the stage for a spring jury trial in Pitkin County District Court. Judge Laura Makar scheduled March 17 for a pre-trial conference and April 8-10 for the trial dates.
Woodring appeared in person for his brief arraignment hearing. Representing him was Aspen lawyer Ben Rose, who appeared virtually.
At Woodring’s request, the judge modified a mandatory protective order allowing him contact with the 17-year-old he was with the night in question. Lifting the no-contact provision will allow him to attend Aspen High basketball games, Rose said. Prosecutor James Stone did not object.
Woodring and the high school basketball program parted ways within two weeks of his arrest in March 2024. Woodring was an assistant coach of the Skiers basketball squad that went 27-0 and won the Class 3A state championship in the 2021-22 season.
Woodring broke his silence about the incident Tuesday.
“Being the assistant coach of the state championship Aspen basketball team was one of the great joys of my life,” he told the Aspen Daily News. “The last thing that I wanted to do was cause pain in this community that I treasure. While there is another side of this story that I look forward to sharing, I am deeply sorry for any pain that I contributed to.”
Rose, also speaking to the Daily News, said: “The great thing about the American legal system is everyone is afforded their day in court and we feel confident in our case and we believe that there is another side to this story that we look forward to being told.”
The trial would come more than one year after Aspen police arrested Woodring on a class 5 felony eluding charge, a class 1 misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and driving under the influence.
Aspen police said in an arrest warrant affidavit it was in the early morning hours of Saturday, March 16, when Woodring recklessly drove a Ford F-150 pickup truck with three passengers through the West End neighborhood.
Woodring twice evaded police attempting to pull him over, said the affidavit. Later on the same morning, police found the truck with its doors wide open and abandoned on South 3rd Street, the affidavit said.
As they were canvassing the area, police spotted the truck’s three passengers — a 17-year-old basketball player and two AHS graduates, ages 19 and 20.
Once police tracked them down, one of the passengers told an officer they fled the scene at Woodring’s direction, the affidavit said. They also told police they had dinner at Woodring’s home the night before, then used their fake IDs to enter an Aspen bar with Woodring. The group had a late-night meal after the bars closed, and Woodring agreed to drive them home, the affidavit said.
Police arrested Woodring at his Snowmass Village residence after the incident. He was booked and released on $2,000 bond the same day. Woodring did not submit to any sobriety tests, as he was taken into custody roughly 12 hours after the incident.
Police cited each of the three passengers with a petty offense of minor in possession.
The most severe charge against Woodring is the lightest vehicular eluding felony charge under Colorado law, a conviction carrying a sentence of 1-3 years in state prison. The state’s two other felony eluding charges are class 3, which is an incident involving death (4-12 years in prison), and class 4, an incident causing bodily injury (2-6 years).
This week’s arraignment hearing was held after the previously scheduled ones were postponed at the request of the defense. Woodring’s arraignment hearings set in May, June, July, August, September and November were all reset.