A disciplinary panel on Thursday scheduled a mid-August hearing to adjudicate the alleged misconduct of Montezuma County Court Judge Ian J. MacLaren.

Following voters’ passage of constitutional Amendment H in November 2024, adjudication of serious judicial misconduct allegations is open to public scrutiny earlier in the process. The amendment also created a system in which three-member panels of a judge, a lawyer, and a non-attorney are selected to hear cases and impose discipline.

Although two other judges went through the formal discipline process after Amendment H’s adoption, both reached agreements with the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline to resign before an adjudicative hearing could happen.

MacLaren’s panel consists of Weld County District Court Judge Vincente G. Vigil, former Pueblo County District Attorney Jeff Chostner, and non-attorney Jeannie Valliere. MacLaren remains on the bench while the proceedings unfold.

During a brief April 30 status conference, attorneys for MacLaren and the commission suggested the adjudicative hearing would take three days at most.

Gov. Jared Polis originally appointed MacLaren to the Dolores County Court in May 2024 as a part-time judge, then to the Montezuma County Court a few months later as a full-time judge. If he remains in office following the adjudication of his misconduct allegations, MacLaren will face voters for retention in November 2028.

As alleged by the commission, MacLaren failed to follow state law in handling a misdemeanor case of the Montezuma-Cortez School District superintendent. Instead of discontinuing the proceedings once the litigants filed a diversion agreement, MacLaren scheduled a hearing at which he criticized the proposed course of action.

He also texted a reporter about the hearing, and she published a picture taken inside the courtroom without authorization.

In responding to the discipline commission’s inquiry, MacLaren made several statements the commission alleged to be verifiably false.

Separately, while the discipline investigation was pending, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials approached MacLaren two days in a row while he was boating on McPhee Reservoir. According to the incident report, MacLaren acknowledged during the first encounter that he knew he needed to register his boat but had not done so.

The following day, MacLaren “claimed he had tried to register” online but had encountered “technical difficulties.” After the officer informed MacLaren he could update his registration in person, MacLaren “claimed he did not have time due to his occupation as a Judge.” Two wildlife officials then debated whether to ticket MacLaren, in light of his status as a judge and what it might mean for their agency in future court cases.

“The Commission does not expect judges to be perfect or to remember things perfectly. However, the sheer number of misrepresentations made by Judge MacLaren to the Commission, including representations about matters that go to the heart of the Commission’s inquiry, demonstrates Judge MacLaren did not just make a series of mistakes here,” wrote Special Counsel Jeffrey M. Walsh in the September 2025 complaint against MacLaren.

“Judge MacLaren acknowledges that he should have made different decisions at particular moments under review,” responded Kevin M. McGreevy, who was MacLaren’s attorney at the time. “Yet the sum total of his errors do not rise to the prospect of removal from office.”

The adjudicative panel scheduled a pre-hearing conference for July 27 to address last-minute issues. The hearing itself will take place from Aug. 11-13 at the offices of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge in Denver.