Colorado’s second-highest court reversed a defendant’s robbery-related convictions and 18-year prison sentence on Thursday because a Douglas County judge allowed a biased juror to serve.

During Ahmarion Kaliel Shead’s trial in January 2023, one juror, identified as “J.H.,” indicated on his questionnaire that he was “pro-law enforcement.” J.H. also disclosed that a relative worked for the police and other family members had been crime victims.

When asked if he could be fair and impartial, J.H. wrote: “Depends.”

The prosecution and defense questioned J.H. at length about how he would view a law enforcement witness. J.H. responded that

• “I would have to give that more credibility than somebody I have no idea (about)”
• “Just being a hundred percent honest with the court, I would give law enforcement a small leg up just by the nature of trust”
• He was “more apt to put a little more trust in an officer of the law than I am a random person”
• Most people in law enforcement have “lofty ideals that inherently attract a degree of trust from me just because of the sacrifice they make on a personal level. So, I just trust those individuals a little more”

In J.H.’s final statement, he concluded that “at baseline, a law enforcement officer would have increased credibility.”

The defense sought to dismiss J.H. for bias, citing his comments. Then-District Court Judge Patricia Herron declined to remove J.H., and he ultimately served on Shead’s jury.

A three-judge Court of Appeals panel determined J.H.’s statements exhibited bias and Herron should have removed him for cause. Judge Grant T. Sullivan wrote that, even after Herron and the attorneys emphasized the need to evaluate each individual witness’s credibility, J.H. seemingly doubled down.

“J.H. continued to say that he would give law enforcement officers a ‘leg up,’ view them with ‘inherent’ credibility, and place ‘more trust’ in them compared to other witnesses,” Sullivan wrote in the Jan. 29 opinion. “If anything, J.H. upped the ante after his attempted rehabilitation by saying he would extend law enforcement officers ‘increased credibility as a baseline.'”

Although J.H. also suggested he could follow the court’s instructions, Herron never reconciled those comments with J.H.’s pro-police statements when she declined to remove him.

“Absent such findings, J.H.’s final statement — that he would afford law enforcement officers heightened credibility as a ‘baseline’ — leaves us with considerable uncertainty about whether he would follow the court’s credibility instruction or decide crucial issues impartially,” Sullivan concluded.

The panel ordered a new trial.

Herron retired from the bench at the end of 2023, but the chief justice subsequently hired her as a part-time senior judge despite the Court of Appeals having reversed numerous convictions and sentences due to her errors. A different appellate panel overturned another defendant’s sentence last month because of Herron’s actions, with Sullivan also authoring that opinion.

The case is People v. Shead.