david yun
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Appeals court says Denver judge forced man to choose between right to attorney, speedy trial
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Colorado’s second-highest court last week reversed a man’s convictions after finding a Denver judge forced him to choose between postponing his jury trial if he wanted a lawyer or continuing to trial as scheduled, but with no attorney. Aurelio DeSantiago opted to represent himself and a jury convicted him of multiple assault charges. He received…
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Appeals court says Denver judge was wrong to revoke woman’s jury trial for being late
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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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Fast food workers’ wage claims can proceed as class action in 3 cases, appeals court says
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Colorado’s Court of Appeals determined last week that three lawsuits against fast food chains may proceed, in part, as class actions – meaning potentially thousands of workers across dozens of stores could benefit monetarily if wage violations are proven. In cases arising out of Denver, El Paso County and southwest Colorado, a three-judge panel of the…
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Appeals court dismisses dentist’s defamation lawsuit against woman who left negative reviews
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Colorado’s second-highest court has dismissed a dentist’s defamation lawsuit against a Crestone woman who left him negative reviews following her unsatisfactory root canals, basing its ruling on a recently-enacted state law designed to block meritless lawsuits involving First Amendment activity. Creekside Endodontics of Lone Tree and its dentist, Andrew Stubbs, sued former patient Kathryn Sullivan…
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Convictions reversed in 2 cases due to faulty jury instructions
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Colorado’s second-highest court reversed the convictions of two Arapahoe County criminal defendants earlier this month, citing the failure by the trial judges to properly instruct jurors about the law on self-defense. The circumstances of each case differed slightly. In one instance, the trial judge apparently forgot to read the proper self-defense instruction he had previously…
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Appeals court rebuffs challenge from environmental groups, says state met greenhouse gas responsibility
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Contrary to the allegations of a pair of environmental groups, state agencies satisfied the legal deadline for proposing rules aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the next three decades, Colorado’s second-highest court concluded on Thursday. The Environmental Defense Fund and WildEarth Guardians sought a judicial declaration that Colorado had blown past the cutoff date the legislature…
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Appeals court finds no constitutional violation after judge told public to leave courtroom
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Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday that an Arapahoe County judge did not violate the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of a public trial when he ordered the one observer to a criminal proceeding out of his courtroom during jury selection. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals emphasized its findings in the case of Terance…
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Appeals court sides with restrictive interpretation of open records law
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Colorado’s second-highest court has settled on a narrower interpretation of the state’s open records law, deciding a former paralegal for the city of Loveland could not have access to emails in which she was the subject. A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals last month reversed a Larimer County judge who believed that even…
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Appeals court finds El Paso defendant never gave up right to jury trial, overturns convictions
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Colorado’s second-highest court has concluded an El Paso County judge mistakenly found a defendant had relinquished his constitutional right to a jury trial, when the man had never, in fact, explicitly agreed to do so. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals reversed the felony assault and sexual assault convictions of Stacey Joe Yarbrough,…
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Appeals court finds El Paso judge misunderstood law, orders case reinstated
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An El Paso County judge failed to follow the law when she preemptively dismissed a low-level drug case during the COVID-19 pandemic, the state’s Court of Appeals has determined. Although former District Court Judge Deborah J. Grohs was convinced the ongoing public health emergency and ensuing backlog of jury trials meant defendant Marckus Antonio Maxwell…
