Mesa County District Court Judge Richard T. Gurley will be Colorado’s next federal judge, taking office as the U.S. District Court’s part-time magistrate judge stationed in Grand Junction.

Gov. Bill Owens appointed Gurley in 2006, eight years after the latter moved to Colorado from Florida. Prior to joining the judiciary, Gurley practiced criminal defense and civil litigation, and was a prosecutor upon graduating law school.

“I am honored to be chosen for this appointment to the federal bench and I look forward to continuing to proudly serve the public on the Western Slope,” Gurley said. “This will be an exciting challenge, and I am thrilled to be able to serve the United States of America from the bench.”

Gurley will fill the seat of now-U.S. District Court Judge Gordon P. Gallagher, an appointee of President Joe Biden and one of the seven active district judges on Colorado’s federal bench. Gallagher, who is the first district judge to ever be stationed outside of Denver, was a magistrate judge for more than a decade prior to his appointment.

Magistrate judges are screened by a selection panel and hired by the life-tenured district judges to assist with the workload of the trial court. Although they tend to focus on preliminary and administrative matters in cases, magistrate judges may perform many of the same duties as their presidentially appointed counterparts, including presiding over civil cases on their own. 

Magistrate judges typically serve renewable terms lasting eight years, but part-time magistrate judges have a term of four years.

There were four other finalists for the Grand Junction-based position. The clerk’s office did not immediately respond to a question about who the other candidates were.

“I am excited for this opportunity for Judge Gurley,” said Chief Justice Brian D. Boatright. “He has been an excellent judge for the state and I am confident that he will serve the federal bench extremely well.”

“Judge Gurley has had a distinguished 17-year career on the state court bench in Mesa County as a district judge and will be greatly missed. I am, however, glad that he will be staying in Grand Junction in his new position and wish him well,” said Chief Judge Brian J. Flynn of the 21st Judicial District.

Voters in Mesa County retained Gurley last year with nearly 73% of the vote. The citizen-led performance commission that evaluated Gurley found him to be “kind, patient, and treated those before him with respect.” Their only concern was the timeliness of his decisions. Gurley told the commission he wanted everyone to feel he “gave them a fair shake” in court.

Among the cases he has handled, Gurley granted a new trial earlier this summer for a man serving life in prison for a series of bombings, citing unreliable scientific testimony from the original 1993 proceedings. Colorado Politics also reported that in 2021, the Court of Appeals ordered Gurley to re-sentence a man after the judge erroneously calculated his prison term.

In a letter of support sent to the magistrate judge selection panel, District Attorney Daniel P. Rubinstein said Gurley does “not have an ego about him,” and, as a lawyer, assisted Rubinstein with difficult ethical issues.

“He has presided over some of the most complex murder cases Colorado has seen and is rarely reversed on appeal. He has also handled a huge variety of cases in other areas of law,” wrote Rubinstein.

He added that Owens, a Republican, originally appointed Gurley when he was a lawyer representing the criminally accused and plaintiffs in civil lawsuits. Rubinstein wrote that he believed such a background was unusual for an Owens appointee.

Gurley is the first state judge selected for the federal bench in Colorado since Barack Obama appointed U.S. District Court Senior Judge R. Brooke Jackson in 2011.

Gurley will take his seat on the federal bench at the conclusion of a background check. With his appointment, there remains only one vacancy: that of U.S. District Court Senior Judge Raymond P. Moore, an Obama appointee who stepped down from active status this summer. 

The nominee to succeed him, U.S. Magistrate Judge S. Kato Crews, has been awaiting consideration by the full U.S. Senate for months.