david richman
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Appeals court decides when Social Security payments may be garnished
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Colorado’s second-highest court has clarified the circumstances under which Social Security payments, which are exempt from garnishment under federal law, may actually be used to repay a debt. On Thursday, a three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals disagreed that federal law “unambiguously” shields Social Security benefits from garnishment. Instead, a beneficiary who fails to…
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By 5-2, state Supreme Court green-lights investors’ lawsuit against Denver energy company
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In a divided ruling on Monday, the Colorado Supreme Court permitted a pension plan for law enforcement to sue a Denver-based oil and gas company for allegedly misleading investors in violation of a Depression-era law designed to prevent fraud. The question for the state’s highest court was whether Jagged Peak Energy Inc. would be held…
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Divided appeals court finds woman convicted of murder not subject to Miranda rights violation
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By 2-1, Colorado’s second-highest court last week decided police in Moffat County were not required to read a woman her Miranda rights in the two hours they supervised her, kept her in an interrogation room, bound her hands to preserve evidence and watched her make incriminating statements. Law enforcement are required to provide a Miranda…
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Judges uphold police search stemming from IP address, but disagree on legal justification
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Law enforcement in Clear Creek County was in the process of executing a search warrant at a Silver Plume home, looking for devices containing child pornography, when they encountered Kevin M. Dhyne, a tenant in the house’s basement. Dhyne volunteered to a detective that he used his landlord’s Internet – an admission that would culminate in…
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Appeals court pushes back against racial bias in jury selection
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Colorado’s second-highest court laid down new rules on Thursday to discourage the exclusion of people of color from juries for reasons that, while not explicitly racial, are nevertheless correlated with race. Two separate panels of the state’s Court of Appeals issued rulings that, in part, forbid the dismissal of Black jurors solely because they reveal…
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Appeals panel rules against El Paso sheriff following Supreme Court decision
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Six months after the Colorado Supreme Court decided El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder could be sued for intentionally detaining a man for nearly four months after he posted bond, the state’s Court of Appeals also sided against Elder on an outstanding minor issue in the lawsuit. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals…
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Unlawful arrest, questionable evidence leads to reversal of Pitkin County man’s convictions
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A Pitkin County judge improperly allowed evidence stemming from an unlawful arrest to be used at trial, and did not correctly instruct the jury about how to use a different set of evidence, the state’s Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday. The three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals that reviewed Jeremiah Daniel Casper’s case…
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Appeals court says children’s age, maturity must factor into prosecutions for sexual contact
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An 11-year-old boy in Denver was “spinning around” a female classmate and made contact with her genitals and buttocks. The boy also reportedly told her “sexual things,” but there was no evidence of what he actually said. A juvenile court judge in Denver found the boy, J.O., had committed unlawful sexual contact under the circumstances…
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Appeals court tosses Denver sex abuse convictions for improper reference to porn searches
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The state’s second-highest court has reversed a man’s convictions for sexually assaulting a child after determining it was improper for prosecutors to rely on Juan Hernandez-Ramirez’s Internet searches for pornography after allegedly abusing the victim. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals relied on a Colorado Supreme Court decision from earlier this year jettisoning a…
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‘Agree to disagree’: Students weigh in on appeals court cases argued at Denver school
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The state’s second-highest court issued a pair of noteworthy decisions last week: One involving a golf course injury and the other delving into a trespassing incident in subfreezing temperatures. But what distinguished these cases from the 2,000 others filed with the Court of Appeals each year was the fact that a few dozen high school students…
