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

Members from all levels of the judiciary recently spoke to lawyers about timely topics like artificial intelligence and bias in the courtroom, plus the state Judicial Department is under new scrutiny for the delays in disciplining two trial judges accused of misconduct.

Judges talk process, substance

•  Last month, the Colorado Bar Association’s Judicial Liaison Section held a half-day event featuring federal, state and local judges who gave a peek behind the curtain of the judiciary. You can read about the four main topics of conversation here:

Artificial intelligence: ‘AI won’: Judges caution lawyers to educate themselves about artificial intelligence in the law

What to know about appeals: Pulling back the curtain: Justice William Hood talks about appeals behind the scenes

Bias and how to recognize it: Judges warn about bias in courtrooms, legal profession

Becoming a judge: ‘Political with a small “p”‘: Federal, state and local pathways to the bench

•  Some other takeaways from the event: Geoffrey Klingsporn, an attorney who keeps track of court statistics, noted the Colorado Supreme Court’s reversal rate is the highest it has been in 10 years, with 68% of cases resulting in reversal last year. Also, the number of cases filed in Colorado state courts was 173,568 in the past fiscal year, down from 232,803 just five years ago.

•  Judge Ted C. Tow III of the Court of Appeals advised lawyers they should alert the appellate court when a case contains an issue that would benefit from a precedent-setting opinion, which is something the court gets to decide. Of the 22 Court of Appeals judges, “there are now five of us who have ever sat on a trial court,” he said, meaning the majority of appellate judges might not recognize when trial courts need binding guidance. “Let us know it is a recurring thing so we can take it into account.”

•  Finally, Denver District Court Judge Jon J. Olafson, who talked about de-biasing courtrooms, spoke about his own experience learning to combat bias. Olafson, who is gay, said he used to be tormented as a child in rural Minnesota for his sexuality, to the point where he associated White men with danger. “When that bias exists and you’re around those people — don’t do it out loud — but in my brain I’m like, ‘I’m safe in this situation. There’s no danger to me here.’ And I reprogram my brain,” he said.

Disciplinary cases

•  The Gazette reported that multiple judges, including Chief Justice Brian D. Boatright, knew about but did not report the drinking problem of former Denver Juvenile Court Presiding Judge D. Brett Woods. Woods stepped down from the bench last month amid a misconduct investigation whose details are confidential. According to the report, Woods allegedly was prepared to retaliate against a court employee who planned to confront Woods about his performance.

•  The Gazette also found the Judicial Department delayed reporting the misconduct of ex-Adams County District Court Judge Robert W. Kiesnowski Jr. to disciplinary authorities, with Kiesnowski resigning last summer two years after the target of his retaliation lodged her complaint.

Heard on appeal

•  After the Colorado Supreme Court ruled in January that judges can’t force defendants to reveal all of their evidence of an alternate suspect before trial, the justices sent another case back to a Delta County judge and told him to follow their guidance.

•  The Supreme Court will hear cases addressing the public’s right to access peace officer decertification information, whether there is a loophole to a 2019 ruling that declared certain types of sentences illegal, and the information judges may consider when deciding to penalize insurance companies.

•  The state’s Court of Appeals agreed an El Paso County judge wasn’t constitutionally obligated to accept a defendant’s guilty plea on the first day of trial.

•  By 2-1, the Court of Appeals upheld a child sex assault conviction in Denver, even though jurors heard damaging information about the defendant’s uncharged misconduct and received no instruction for what to do with the evidence.

•  Unusually, a man’s sex assault convictions have been reversed twice and then reinstated twice. Most recently, the Court of Appeals sided with Denver prosecutors in reaffirming the convictions for the second time in 12 years.

•  The Court of Appeals told prosecutors to get their act together and calculate crime victim restitution by the time of sentencing if possible, with trial judges able to set deadlines to speed the process along.

•  A trial judge wrongly told Huerfano County to appropriate money to the district attorney’s office through a formula intended to boost funding, with the Court of Appeals determining county commissioners acted reasonably by giving the DA significantly less than he said he needed to run the office.

In federal news

•  After a conservative group reached a settlement with Secretary of State Jena Griswold last year, they discovered Griswold’s office had misstated voter registration numbers in the lead-up to the agreement. They asked a federal judge to reopen the case, but he reminded them he’d already given up jurisdiction following the settlement.

•  A federal judge concluded an expelled University of Colorado student had no evidence to support the claim that his disciplinary proceedings were tainted with biased decision-making.

Vacancies and appointments

•  There are three candidates to succeed retiring Otero County Court Judge Douglas R. Manley: former elected district attorney James R. Bullock, current elected district attorney William J. Culver and Alex Egri.

Miscellaneous proceedings

•  It seems likely this morning the U.S. Supreme Court will hand down its ruling in Trump v. Anderson, a case out of Colorado that will answer whether Donald Trump is constitutionally disqualified from seeking office because he engaged in insurrection as president, as the Colorado Supreme Court found him to be.