Chief Justice Brian D. Boatright detailed on Friday the “tremendous amount of damage” that still exists at the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center and disclosed he initially thought the Jan. 2 break-in was related to the Supreme Court’s decision to remove Donald Trump from the state’s presidential primary ballot.

Brandon Olsen caused an estimated $35 million in damage when he broke into the office portion of the Carr Center overnight, fired shots from inside and reportedly set a fire. The side of the complex housing the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals was largely unaffected.

The damage came two weeks after the Supreme Court ruled Trump was constitutionally disqualified from appearing on the ballot because he engaged in insurrection for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently reversed that decision and reinstated Trump.

“I got a phone call at two in the morning and it’s, ‘There’s an active shooter in the building.’ It was just a couple of days after the Trump decision came out so I sat there on the edge of my bed and thought, ‘I wonder what they’re doing to my office right now,'” said Boatright, speaking at the 2024 appellate practice update sponsored by the Colorado Bar Association.

“I assumed it had a bearing on the Trump case. If you’re willing to shoot open glass, there’s a pretty clear path up to our offices,” continued Boatright, who was one of the three justices to dissent from the state Supreme Court’s decision.

He added that Olsen’s conduct was unrelated to the case, as Olsen was “having some kind of an episode” at the time. Olsen stands accused of four felonies and one misdemeanor, including arson.

Earlier this year, judicial leaders told the legislature the damage to the office tower would cost an estimated $35 million to repair. Boatright clarified in his recent remarks that employees would be able to return to non-damaged floors “hopefully by the end of the summer.”

“It’s a tremendous amount of damage. They’re having to go through and look at the steel structure in the building to make sure the fire retardant wasn’t taken off,” said Boatright.

He ticked through the various factors that contributed to the destruction: The sprinkler system ran for about three hours and caused large amounts of water to pass down through the building. Olsen also allegedly used fire extinguishers, releasing chemicals into the air. Then there was the fire itself.

“One of the things we’ve had difficulty around is getting an environmental report on the heating and air conditioning system. Because, again, it had smoke, chemicals and potentially water in there. We want to make sure there’s not mold,” said Boatright, adding that he was awaiting the results of the environmental testing. 

The estimate that employees of affected agencies, like the Colorado Attorney General’s Office, would be able to return to non-damaged floors by the end of the summer, Boatright elaborated, was predicated on the air conditioning system being “fairly clean.”

“If it turns out the heating and air conditioning vents need more detailed cleaning, then it could be even longer,” he said.

Boatright thanked the Colorado Bar Association for permitting displaced agencies to use office space at its building across the street from the Carr Center.

Editor’s note: The Denver District Attorney’s Office clarified it subsequently added a charge to Olsen’s criminal case. He now stands accused of five counts.