judge david yun
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Divided appeals court nullifies defendant’s $37,000 restitution obligation due to faulty order
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Colorado’s second-highest court concluded on Thursday that a defendant has no obligation to pay nearly $37,000 in crime victim restitution due to a faulty order that even the trial judge acknowledged was contrary to the law. In Colorado, as part of sentencing, judges must consider whether defendants owe financial restitution to their victims. If so,…
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Mesa County judge wrong to conclude hatchet not a ‘knife,’ says appeals court
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Colorado’s second-highest court determined last week that a Mesa County judge incorrectly reduced a defendant’s menacing charge from a felony to a misdemeanor after finding his hatchet did not meet the definition of “knife.” A person commits menacing as a misdemeanor if they use threats or physical actions to place another person in fear of…
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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 judge urges Colorado Supreme Court to analyze alimony obligations after spouses’ remarriage
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A member of Colorado’s second-highest court urged the state Supreme Court on Thursday to address a question that has produced inconsistent answers over five decades: When divorcing spouses agree that one must pay the other alimony, do they need to explicitly mention what will happen if the receiving spouse gets remarried? The purpose of alimony,…
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Appeals judge calls for investigation into law firm’s handling of potential murder weapon
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A member of Colorado’s second-highest court took the extraordinary step on Thursday of calling for an investigation into the “serious ethical issues” raised by a criminal defense firm’s concealment of a potential murder weapon at its office without notifying the prosecution. A three-judge Court of Appeals panel upheld the convictions of Daniel Jesus Lopez, who is…
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Appeals court finds Denver judge wrongly let child witness testify by CCTV
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Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday that a Denver judge violated the constitutional rights of a juvenile defendant by allowing the victim, who was also a child, to testify in a different room out of concern for the “influence” of the defendant’s parents. However, a three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals concluded the error…
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Appeals judges give Colorado lawyers inside view of courts | APPELLATE UPDATE
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Members of the appeals courts headquartered in Denver gave lawyers a peek on Friday into their behind-the-scenes operations and offered tips about presenting a compelling case to the people making decisions. “You have to pay attention to the entire bench, right? I think one mistake that you can make, as the questions start coming in,…
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Appeals court emphasizes claims against officers must be ‘frivolous’ for unsuccessful plaintiffs to pay
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Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday that a 2020 police accountability law only contemplates that unsuccessful plaintiffs will compensate officer defendants for their costs when the claims are frivolous. Lawmakers enacted Senate Bill 217 in the wake of protests that erupted over the May 2020 death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. Although federal…
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Appeals court rules harsher sentence after appeal does not mean judge was ‘vindictive’
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Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week that a Jefferson County judge subjected a man to a harsher sentence following a successful appeal because the parole eligibility date was pushed back by multiple years, but that fact alone did not mean the judge acted “vindictively.” In 2015, the state Supreme Court noted that when a criminal…
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‘Our job is not necessarily to agree’: Appeals judges speak about compromises in decision-making
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Members of Colorado’s Supreme Court and Court of Appeals spoke to law students on Friday about when and how they compromise in their decision-making — and when they feel compelled to register disagreement. “We have different considerations than the Supreme Court,” said Judge Sueanna P. Johnson of the 22-member appeals court. “They are doing less than…
