Welcome to Court Crawl, Colorado Politics’ roundup of news from the third branch of government.

Another federal trial judge in Colorado has announced his plan to retire and give the Biden administration a fifth vacancy to fill, plus a pair of lawsuits challenging gun safety regulations are moving forward in the wake of new U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

More changes on Colorado’s federal courts

?  Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Raymond P. Moore, a 2013 appointee of Barack Obama, announced he will take a form of retirement known as senior status next June. “Going senior” means he will still be able to handle cases part time, but there will be a vacancy for the Biden administration to fill on Colorado’s seven-member federal trial court.

?  The turnover has been rapid on the district court. The U.S. Senate has already confirmed three new judges since last year and there are two more impending vacancies, including for Moore’s seat. There has also been one confirmed judge from Colorado to the federal appeals court based in Denver.

?  A bit about Moore himself: He grew up in Boston and attended Yale Law School. After graduating, he spent time in private practice and as a federal prosecutor. But the bulk of his legal career, spanning two decades, was in the Office of the Federal Public Defender for Colorado and Wyoming. At the time of his appointment, Moore was the head of the public defender’s office. 

?  John Walsh, the former U.S. attorney for Colorado who overlapped with the end of Moore’s tenure as the public defender, had this to say about the judge: “He’s an irreverent guy. He does not mind calling it like he sees it. I think it’s an irreverence born of a deep idealism. He cares deeply about the quality of justice and sometimes that can lead him to be awfully direct.”

Guns and the courts

?  It has been little over a month since the Supreme Court decided New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, a key Second Amendment decision effectively making it more difficult for governments to enact gun safety regulations. The ruling has prompted two lawsuits in Colorado’s federal court. First, there is a challenge to the town of Superior’s recently-passed assault weapons ban. Second, there is a lawsuit seeking to overturn Colorado’s ban on large-capacity magazines, which the legislature enacted in the wake of the 2012 Aurora movie theater murders.

?  Moore, the judge who is handling the lawsuit against Superior, has already issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the assault weapons ban and a related provision of the town’s ordinance. There is a hearing scheduled for early November on the question of a preliminary injunction. Superior has indicated it will offer “robust” evidence justifying its firearm regulations in light of the Supreme Court’s new standard.

?  Speaking of irreverence, Moore had this admonition for the lawyers to avoid peppering their legal arguments with political rhetoric: “Such things have as much impact on me as a spitball on an elephant’s butt.”

In other federal news

?  Elsewhere in the federal district court, a judge has swatted away claims that a Larimer County school district failed to provide the legally-required level of services to a special-needs child.

?  A lawsuit against Colorado Springs and multiple officers may proceed, alleging excessive force and other constitutional claims for the death of a man in police custody. Body-worn camera footage depicted the officers accusing the deceased of “playing possum” when he was actually dying on the floor of his home.

?  Jurors are deliberating about whether dentist Larry Rudolph is guilty of murdering his wife during a 2016 African safari. Last week, Rudolph testified in his defense at the Denver courthouse: “I did not murder my wife. I could not murder my wife. I would not murder my wife.”

Colorado state appeals

?  The Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to hear four appeals covering domestic violence offenses, Alford pleas, the exclusion of key evidence from a sex assault trial and a man’s difficulty connecting to virtual court proceedings.

?  A Denver judge convicted a cognitively impaired man for a 2007 assault. But there were questions about his competence to stand trial and the defendant’s level of understanding about his rights. The state Court of Appeals directed a judge to review whether the defendant knowingly waived his constitutional right to a trial by jury.

?  A parent needs to allege, but not prove, their child is in imminent danger in order to get a court to evaluate whether to restrict an ex-spouse’s custody, the Court of Appeals decided. The parties in the case differed on what the effects would be from the ruling, with one side asserting it will better protect children, and the other side contending there will be more motions from parents alleging imminent danger without a need to prove those allegations.

?  For some reason, no one realized the judge overseeing a criminal trial had briefly represented the defendant in the case during her prior career as a public defender. The Court of Appeals, by 2-1, overturned the conviction because state law required the judge to recuse herself.

?  For more than a decade, an inmate has pursued a legal challenge to a Colorado Department of Corrections policy that prohibits him from using a version of his name comporting with his religious beliefs. The Court of Appeals disagreed with a trial judge that the lawsuit was moot, instead saying the department appears to stand by its policy and there is evidence pointing to an unlawful restriction on religious expression.

?  A Denver judge convicted a juvenile defendant of burglary, even though there was not enough evidence to prove a key element of the offense, the Court of Appeals found.

Vacancies and appointments

?  Following the Senate confirmation last month of U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang, there is now an opening for Wang’s prior job as a magistrate judge. The $205,000-per-year position, with a term of eight years, has a deadline to apply of Aug. 29.

?  The governor has appointed Lance P. Clark – whose experience includes estate, probate, government, municipal and corporate law- to be a Bent County Court judge, succeeding Samuel S. Vigil.

?  Pierce L. Fowler, a lawyer in child welfare matters, will be a district court judge for the Third Judicial District, succeeding Chief Judge Leslie J. Gerbracht.

?  The deadline is Aug. 12 to submit applications for the seat of retiring District Court Judge Frederick T. Martinez in the 18th Judicial District (Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties). There is also an Aug. 29 deadline to apply for the seat of Jefferson County Court Judge K.J. Moore.

?  There are three finalists to succeed District Court Judge Stanley A. Brinkley in the 15th Judicial District of Baca, Cheyenne, Kiowa and Prowers counties: Jeffrey M. Cure of Burlington, Jennifer M. Esch of Springfield and Tarryn L. Johnson of La Junta.

?  The governor also has three candidates for the seat of Larimer County Court Judge Mary Joan Berenato: Magistrate Dina M. Christiansen, Jenny Lopez Filkins and Heather K. Siegel.

Miscellaneous decisions

?  The state’s Court of Appeals formally welcomed Judge W. Eric Kuhn, who began in the job last year but had his official investiture ceremony delayed until this summer.

?  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit decided a family’s challenge to the special education services a Colorado Springs school district provided was moot. 

?  An Adams County judge found probable cause exists to charge five Aurora police officers and paramedics with manslaughter and other offenses stemming from the 2019 death of Elijah McClain.