judge daniel taubman
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Denver parents denied ‘fundamentally fair’ child neglect proceeding, appeals court finds
Colorado’s second-highest court agreed last month that two Denver parents were denied a “fundamentally fair proceeding” in their child neglect case when the city imposed new conditions and a judge approved them without hearing from the parents first. In July 2022, Denver Human Services initiated a child neglect case against a mother and father. A…
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Appeals court says state campaign finance enforcement framework is constitutional
Colorado’s second-highest court agreed last week that the state’s current method of adjudicating campaign finance complaints is constitutional and is not the “very definition of tyranny.” For several years, state law has allowed any person to file a complaint alleging a campaign finance violation, which the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office then screens, decides whether to dismiss…
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Appeals court overturns Archuleta County judge’s faulty child neglect ruling
Colorado’s second-highest court agreed an Archuleta County judge abruptly and wrongly deemed a man’s children neglected after he did not appear for a hearing, even though there was no basis for such a ruling. The county opened a child neglect case for two children based on the mother’s alleged substance abuse. Their father, identified as…
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Appeals court rejects notion that coroners’ conclusions preempt other evidence of murder
Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week that an “undetermined” cause of death from a county coroner does not preclude prosecutors from presenting their own evidence that the death was actually a homicide. In the case before the Court of Appeals, Denver jurors convicted Robert W. Feldman in 2022 of murdering his wife, Stacy Feldman. He is…
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Appeals court divided over meaning of judge’s parenting order
Colorado’s second-highest court was split last week over whether to uphold an Arapahoe County judge’s parenting order, with two appellate judges interpreting the language differently than the parties and the third appellate judge. In the underlying case, the county filed a child neglect case on behalf of a 4-year-old girl. At an October 2023 hearing,…
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Appeals court takes no issue with defense lawyer who admitted client’s guilt at trial
Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday concluded an attorney did not violate his client’s constitutional right to make key decisions about his defense when the lawyer unilaterally told the jury his client committed some of the charged crimes. The U.S. Supreme Court has provided guidance in recent years about when criminal defense attorneys may concede their…
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Colorado Supreme Court takes up cases on Title IX investigations, COVID campus closure
The Colorado Supreme Court recently agreed to hear multiple cases implicating a witness’ immunity for making defamatory statements in a school sex assault investigation, whether a university can be sued for closing its campus early in the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether a man should receive a new trial for his numerous securities fraud convictions. At…
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Appeals court, 2-1, says names of book ban advocates not subject to disclosure
Colorado law does not permit libraries to disclose the identities of people who request the removal of certain books, the state’s second-highest court ruled last week. A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals did not weigh in on the broader movement to ban materials that touch on LGBTQ themes or race from library shelves.…
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Rio Blanco County sheriff’s officials can be held liable for jail suicide, appeals court rules
The immunity that Colorado law broadly affords to government entities does not shield employees of the Rio Blanco County Sheriff’s Office from being sued for the death of a jail detainee, Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday. On her third day in the county jail, Catherine Rowell died by suicide. Sheriff’s personnel allegedly failed to…