Author: Michael Karlik
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Divided appeals court upholds convictions despite ‘troubling and unfair’ contradictory police testimony
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Colorado’s second-highest court upheld a man’s convictions for unlawful possession of a firearm on Thursday, even as the majority acknowledged it was potentially unfair that a Denver officer testified to a different sequence of events at trial than earlier in the case. Matthew Torres attempted to exclude from trial the evidence of a handgun in…
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Appeals court overturns Denver strangulation conviction for improper expert testimony
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Colorado’s second-highest court reversed a Denver man’s assault conviction on Thursday, finding an expert’s testimony about the potential risks of strangulation had no bearing on the facts of the case. Phillip L. Bauereiss and the victim got into an argument. Jurors heard that Bauereiss allegedly took a dog leash and wrapped it around the victim’s…
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Colorado justices consider whether Denver police failed to respect suspect’s right to counsel
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court considered on Thursday whether Denver detectives improperly restarted their interrogation of a murder suspect who had clearly invoked his constitutional right to an attorney. The district attorney’s office characterized the circumstances as “peculiar.” When police initially brought in Dakotah Lulei for questioning, he was not under arrest. After receiving…
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Colorado justices weigh potential race-based treatment for Arapahoe County murder defendant
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The Colorado Supreme Court considered a convicted defendant’s argument on Thursday that Arapahoe County prosecutors unconstitutionally singled out him and another Black teenager for murder prosecutions as adults, while offering lenient plea deals to the two non-Black co-defendants. Lloyd Chavez IV, a student at Cherokee Trail High School, died in May 2019 after four teenagers…
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10th Circuit rejects assortment of legal theories challenging workplace vaccine mandates
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The Denver-based federal appeals court rejected an array of legal theories on Tuesday that challenged employers’ ability to impose COVID-19 vaccination requirements under the U.S. Constitution, laws governing emergency drug authorizations and the rules for human experimentation. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit followed in the footsteps of…
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Federal judge advances defamation lawsuit from woman called ‘prostitute’ at party
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A federal judge on Wednesday declined to dismiss a defamation lawsuit stemming from a 2024 party at which the defendant allegedly called the plaintiff a “prostitute.” Tiffany Mai alleged that during a July 2024 dance at a luxury dude ranch in Granby, attendee Laura Elsaden approached other guests and “began making defamatory, slanderous, and false…
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Colorado Supreme Court considers right to self-defense in workplace
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court seemed open on Tuesday to recognizing a right for employees to use smeelf-defense in the workplace without facing termination. “It may be shoplifting, but if it’s a self-defense situation and you’re reasonably in danger of serious injury or death, why should the employer make that choice for the employee…
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Colorado justices concerned about blocking self-represented prisoners from pursuing claims due to lack of resources
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When Jamale D. Townsell filed a petition from prison seeking postconviction relief, he argued his trial lawyer was constitutionally ineffective for failing to properly investigate DNA evidence that would have called his responsibility for a 2013 bank robbery into question. The state’s Court of Appeals rejected his petition, reasoning Townsell had not shown how the…
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Colorado justices consider whether man can be convicted for convincing mom to lie for him
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There was no dispute that Michael Thomas Hupke asked his mother to lie to his parole officer on his behalf. Further, Hupke acknowledged Mesa County prosecutors could have charged him as an accomplice to his mother’s deceit, or for soliciting her to do it. But Hupke maintained prosecutors could not do what they actually did:…
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‘Mental gymnastics’: Lawyers, judge dissect Colorado Supreme Court’s racial bias rule for jury selection
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Lawyers from the prosecution and defense communities, along with a trial judge, attempted on Thursday to demystify a recent rule change addressing racial discrimination in criminal jury selection, with some head-scratching about what the Colorado Supreme Court had actually done. “The proposal initially was not to clarify a complicated area of law, but was an…
