Toto, he’s not in Kansas anymore. 

Colorado’s federal trial court announced this week that retired U.S. Magistrate Judge James P. O’Hara of Kansas will be filling in, while a committee screens candidates for a vacancy on the magistrate judge bench.

Earlier this month, senators confirmed S. Kato Crews to be a life-tenured district judge, restoring Colorado’s U.S. District Court to its full roster of seven active judges. However, the appointment triggered another vacancy for Crews’ prior job as a magistrate judge – and no immediate ability to install a replacement.

Consequently, the court enlisted O’Hara, who assisted in Colorado previously while the district court worked to appoint new magistrate judges.

“This time around, Magistrate Judge O’Hara was still on call in Kansas and was still amenable to helping us in some way,” said the court’s clerk, Jeffrey P. Colwell. “In discussions with our magistrate judges and him, we said, ‘Do you think you can assist us in plugging the gap on a portion of the cases Magistrate Judge Crews had?'” 

Magistrate judges focus on preliminary and administrative matters in cases. They can, however, handle nearly all the tasks of their presidentially appointed counterparts.

After the 2022 appointment of U.S. Magistrate Judge Nina Y. Wang to a district judgeship, Colorado’s court enlisted O’Hara to help with criminal matters because, Colwell said, the “cup was overflowing a bit” for the other magistrate judges. O’Hara came to Colorado occasionally to handle in-person appearances, but he also remotely addressed applications for warrants, including after hours and on weekends.

Although the Biden administration nominated Crews to a district judgeship in early 2023, it was not apparent until January that Crews would quickly get a vote in the U.S. Senate. Colwell said Crews subsequently retained all of the cases he was handling by himself as a magistrate judge. Left over were many other cases assigned to Crews in conjunction with a district judge, which Colwell deemed “referral” matters.

“Judge O’Hara is not taking on any new cases, but was willing to assist on a portion of the cases Judge Crews had on referral – all civil,” said Colwell.

In addition, O’Hara will temporarily take Crews’ spot on the magistrate judges’ rotation for handling criminal appearances. O’Hara will travel from Kansas to Denver for those assignments, but Colwell believed the majority of O’Hara’s work will be remote.

Whatever cases O’Hara has at the time Crews’ successor takes the bench will be transferred to the new magistrate judge, Colwell said.

While the deadline to apply for the seat is Feb. 12 and the district judges in Colorado will evaluate the selection panel’s finalists soon afterward, the background check for the appointee will likely take several months. For example, the district court previously announced Wang’s replacement, Susan Prose, in December 2022, but Prose was not able to be sworn in until May 2023.

Richard T. Gurley, whose appointment as a part-time magistrate judge was announced in September, still has not taken the bench.

O’Hara became a magistrate judge in 2000. Among the cases he handled in Kansas were a multimillion-dollar race discrimination lawsuit, a financial sanction against former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, and the pretrial detention of a Proud Boys member who participated in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.