judge jerry jones
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Colorado justices allow sentences of probation after prison, even though prison-plus-probation illegal
Even though the Colorado Supreme Court ruled five years ago that sentences of prison plus probation are illegal, the justices decided on Monday that judges were permitted to fix those sentences by imposing basically the same punishment. In its 2019 decision of Allman v. People, the Supreme Court ruled that state law treats probation as an…
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Motor vehicle repair law splits appeals court 3 ways, with call for legislature to step in
Colorado’s second-highest court was unusually divided on Thursday over the state’s consumer protection law for vehicle owners, with three judges issuing three separate opinions about what the terms of the law require. The Motor Vehicle Repair Act places obligations on repair facilities to provide certain disclosures and estimates to customers before beginning work. If a…
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Colorado Supreme Court to decide whether to retreat on landmark restitution ruling
The Colorado Supreme Court will incorporate an unorthodox twist into its oral argument calendar this week, hearing five cases that all revolve around the same subject: Was the court serious when it said three years ago that judges who do not follow the law lose their authority to order criminal defendants to pay restitution? In…
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Colorado Supreme Court tiptoes around prior edict forbidding prison plus probation
Five years ago, the Colorado Supreme Court interpreted state law to prohibit judges from imposing a sentence of prison plus probation in a single criminal case. But on Wednesday, the justices appeared to endorse the idea that judges could resentence affected defendants in a fashion that preserves the same — illegal — punishment. In its 2019 decision…
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Colorado Supreme Court committee advances election-related change, goes back to work on magistrate rules
The Colorado Supreme Court’s civil rules committee approved a procedural change on Friday for court challenges to presidential electors, a move that complies with legislation passed this year. The committee also heard from the Supreme Court that it must perform further work on proposed changes to the rules governing magistrates, after the justices heard criticism…
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Colorado Supreme Court weighs effort to streamline magistrate rules, aid litigants
Members of the Colorado Supreme Court took comments on Tuesday about proposed changes to the rules governing magistrates, where they heard that the attempt to streamline protocols still presents challenges for litigants and for the trial judges who review magistrate decisions. Magistrates are judicial employees who are not judges but who handle aspects of cases in the trial…
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Divided appeals court strikes down campaign disclosure requirement in Colorado law
Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday concluded the state’s requirement that ballot issue advocacy groups disclose the name of their legal representative on their election communications violates the First Amendment. By 2-1, a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals believed there was no material benefit to the public from knowing who the registered agents are…
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Colorado justices agree ‘nature of relationship’ with minor relatives governs sex offender restrictions
The Colorado Supreme Court decided on Monday that a person on sex offender probation does not have his constitutional rights violated anytime his contact is restricted with minor relatives who are not his children. Instead, the Supreme Court decided such relationships fall on a “spectrum of protection,” with parent-child relationships requiring the greatest degree of…
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Appeals court splits with itself on statewide noise limits, sets up Supreme Court intervention
Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday set the stage for Supreme Court intervention by finding local governments cannot authorize concerts on private, for-profit land to exceed noise limits under state law — three months after another set of appellate judges reached the opposite conclusion. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals concluded the state’s Noise Abatement Act…
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Divided appeals court upholds $111,600 restitution order in Denver murder case
Colorado’s second-highest court last week upheld a Denver judge’s crime victim restitution order as valid, but with continued disagreement over how to apply the Supreme Court’s recent guidance about the state’s restitution law. In Colorado, when a convicted defendant is required to pay financial restitution, prosecutors typically must provide the requested amount by the time…