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

The state Supreme Court has agreed to consider multiple appeals and possibly intervene in a handful of ongoing trial court cases, plus a detailed set of allegations has emerged against a former judge who was censured for his misconduct last month.

Supreme Court business

•  The Colorado Supreme Court will hear three appeals that question whether witnesses in school sexual misconduct investigations have immunity from defamation claims, whether lawsuits are viable against colleges that closed their physical campuses during the early COVID-19 pandemic, and whether a defendant convicted of securities fraud should have been able to tell jurors what his lawyer advised him.

•  The court confirmed school districts that band together into cooperatives can’t locate facilities anywhere they want in the state, without regard to their members’ own boundaries.

•  Certain negligence claims are permitted against ski lift operators for injuries to riders, notwithstanding any liability waiver the ski resort may have asked them to sign, the court ruled.

•  The justices concluded a ruling by the state’s second-highest court, which made it more difficult for parties to appeal a trial judge’s mid-case decision, was overly restrictive.

•  The Supreme Court reversed two trial judges’ decisions about probable cause and document disclosure, but upheld a third order governing the evidence that’s admissible at a sex assault trial.

•  The appearance of bias may be extreme enough to require a judge to recuse herself, but a defendant’s trial judge didn’t need to step down just because she was the victim of crime similar to the defendant’s own offense, the Supreme Court decided.

•  Viewing the evidence most favorably to the prosecution, the Supreme Court determined a man was properly convicted of attempting to entice a child into his vehicle through a brief, sexually suggestive conversation.

•  Justice Melissa Hart spoke to graduates of Fountain Valley School in Colorado Springs, describing her recent involvement in revamping the judiciary’s values statement.

‘An adverse emotional impact’

•  Last month, the Supreme Court censured former Arapahoe County District Court Judge John E. Scipione for misusing his judicial position and attempting to pursue relationships with subordinates. Documents filed with the Supreme Court showed the nature of the allegations against Scipione, which included conversations with his judicial intern that worried other judges, attempting to turn a meeting with his former law clerk into a date, and asking Denver’s probate judge personally to expedite a case involving his late father’s estate.

•  Scipione’s behavior allegedly had “an adverse emotional impact on the staff who were interviewed,” wrote the director of Colorado’s judicial discipline commission to Scipione.

Heard on appeal

•  Former Douglas County District Court Judge Patricia Herron has experienced a string of reversals in recent months to criminal cases she handled, and the state’s Court of Appeals again ordered a new trial based on an error she made regarding alibi testimony.

•  Any Coloradan can challenge a local government’s compliance with the state’s open meetings law, regardless of whether they have a connection to the jurisdiction, the Court of Appeals ruled.

•  The Court of Appeals decided a Weld County judge wrongly instructed jurors to consider a car crash victim’s series of pregnancies when deciding how much money to award her. The court also expressed skepticism that a plaintiff should have to abstain from getting pregnant if a pregnancy will interfere with treatment for her injuries.

•  Prosecutors didn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a man on trial for DUI was the same man who had a prior drunk driving conviction, despite records showing the prior offender had the same name and birthdate as the defendant, plus was a “Caucasian male.”

•  There was no constitutional violation stemming from a hard-to-hear livestream of a criminal trial during the early COVID-19 pandemic, the Court of Appeals found, but a jury instruction did misstate the law on vehicular eluding.

In federal news

•  An Archuleta County sheriff’s detective committed a constitutional violation by barring a family from entering their home for eight hours without a warrant while he fished for a criminal offense, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit decided.

•  By 2-1, the 10th Circuit declined to rule on an appeal from federal prison officials being sued for a constitutional violation, with the dissent arguing such claims are now dead thanks to U.S. Supreme Court precedent.

•  Aurora police officers who shot and killed a man wielding a machete are entitled to immunity, the 10th Circuit ruled, while simultaneously noting lethal force against mentally ill suspects is OK.

•  A federal judge refused to dismiss a lawsuit against the Jefferson County jail’s medical contractor for the death of a detainee due to an untreated infection.

•  A company that gets paid to solicit donations for nonprofits can no longer challenge Colorado’s regulations of paid solicitors because its suspension from operating in Colorado has since been lifted, a judge determined.

•  A judge found no basis to intervene in the federal government’s alleged investigation into former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters, and dismissed Peters’ lawsuit.

Vacancies and appointments

•  Former Mesa County District Court Judge Richard T. Gurley has been sworn in to his new job as a part-time federal magistrate judge stationed in Grand Junction. The U.S. District Court announced his appointment last September, but background checks can take a while to complete. Gurley succeeds Gordon P. Gallagher, who previously held the position before the Biden administration appointed him to be a federal district judge last year.

•  The governor has appointed longtime Mesa County Court Judge Craig P. Henderson to succeed Gurley on the district court bench.

•  Applications are due by July 15 to succeed retiring Court of Appeals Judge Anthony J. Navarro, who has decided not to stand for retention.

•  Applications are due by July 2 to succeed retiring Summit County Court Judge Edward J. Casias, who has been on the bench for almost 24 years.

•  Applications are due by June 18 to succeed El Paso County Court Judge Dennis L. McGuire, who the governor recently appointed to the district court bench.