child welfare
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Colorado Supreme Court takes up 6 cases on involuntary intoxication, malicious prosecution, child neglect trials
The Colorado Supreme Court announced on Monday it will hear appeals in six cases, including the question of whether a person can claim he knowingly ingested one substance that was secretly laced with another behavior-altering substance as a defense to criminal charges. At least three of the court’s seven members must agree to grant an…
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Divided appeals court takes no issue with lack of child welfare services to incarcerated father
Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday that even if a child welfare caseworker could have rehabilitated a father by facilitating visitation time and drug treatment while he was incarcerated, the lack of services was excusable because the man likely would not have taken advantage of them anyway. By 2-1, a three-judge panel of the Court…
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Colorado Supreme Court finds judge wrongly disclosed report about troubled child welfare office
A Washington County judge should not have disclosed a report about potential misconduct in the local child welfare agency to the state office charged with investigating the child protection system, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday. In addition to finding that District Court Judge Charles M. Hobbs had already given up his jurisdiction over…
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Child neglect rulings in 3 cases reversed by Colorado appeals court
Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday determined judges in Montrose and Mesa counties improperly ruled against parents in child welfare cases, with one judge being the subject of two reversals. Weeks earlier, Montrose County District Court Judge D. Cory Jackson was reversed a third time by the Court of Appeals because he denied a woman’s request for…
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State Supreme Court agrees to hear case of backpack search that turned up loaded gun
The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine whether Denver school officials acted lawfully when they searched a student’s backpack, ultimately uncovering a loaded handgun. The justices also narrowly turned down a second appeal out of Denver involving the application of the Americans with Disabilities Act to child welfare proceedings. Granting an appeal requires…
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State Supreme Court clarifies effect of serious bodily injury on child welfare cases
Once the government proves that, more likely than not, a child experienced a serious bodily injury, a judge may find no treatment plan is possible to help the parent become fit, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday. The justices took the uncommon step of hearing an appeal directly from Arapahoe County after noting the…
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Appeals court says Denver judge was wrong to revoke woman’s jury trial for being late
Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday concluded a Denver judge wrongfully revoked a woman’s jury trial for child neglect because she arrived late the morning of the trial. Child welfare cases, formally known as dependency and neglect, are not criminal, and so a parent has no constitutional right to a jury trial. But the Colorado legislature…
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Denver judge wrongly terminated cognitively-impaired mother’s parental rights, appeals court says
In a case involving domestic violence, homelessness and a special-needs child, Colorado’s second-highest court determined a Denver judge wrongly terminated a cognitively-impaired woman’s parental rights based on inaccurate findings about her disability. By 2-1, a three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals concluded the facts did not support Juvenile Court Judge Laurie A. Clark’s determination…
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Technical difficulties, constitutional rights at center of Colorado Supreme Court parental case
Members of the Colorado Supreme Court appeared leery on Tuesday of concluding a father experienced a violation of his constitutional rights when a Jefferson County judge terminated the legal relationship with his child. There was no dispute that the man, identified as R.B., had notice of the hearing and a lawyer who advocated on his…
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Mesa County judge went too far in ordering sex offender treatment absent a conviction, appeals court rules
Although trial judges may require parents to receive psychological counseling for their sexual behavior as part of child welfare proceedings, they may not order parents to receive Colorado’s formal sex offender treatment in the absence of a criminal conviction, the Court of Appeals ruled last week. A three-judge appellate panel explained that the treatment standards…