judge morris hoffman
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Colorado justices find Denver judge appropriately subbed in alternate juror mid-deliberations
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The Colorado Supreme Court concluded on Monday that a Denver judge did what he needed to do to ensure a defendant received a fair trial after one juror became ill in the middle of deliberations and had to be replaced with the alternate. Ricardo Castro’s jury deliberated for 11 hours total until it recessed on…
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Is Colorado’s Supreme Court about to kill implicit bias reform?
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Last year, the Colorado Supreme Court indicated it would first decide a handful of pending cases alleging racial bias in jury selection before it took action on a proposal that would make it more difficult for prosecutors to remove jurors of color for reasons that, while not explicitly racial, nonetheless correlate to race. On Monday,…
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Colorado Supreme Court ponders what to do when substituting alternate jurors mid-deliberation
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When one juror in Ricardo Castro’s criminal trial became incapacitated 11 hours into the jury’s deliberations and could not continue, there was broad agreement afterward that the trial judge did everything he could to emphasize the need for remaining jurors to begin anew — with the alternate juror replacing her stricken counterpart. The question now…
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2 defendants’ sentences upheld for threatening judges
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Colorado’s second-highest court recently upheld the convictions and sentences of two men who made threats against judges, rejecting allegations made on appeal about bias and procedural improprieties. In the first case out of Denver, then-District Court Judge Morris B. Hoffman sentenced Eric Brandt, who has a history of agitating against law enforcement, to 12 years in…
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Colorado Supreme Court weighs propriety of financial penalties for job-switching lawyers
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When attorney Grant Bursek left his job for a different law firm, his old employer billed him $18,936 – meaning $1,052 for each of the 18 clients he took with him, pursuant to an agreement he signed months earlier. Now, in a first-of-its kind case, the Colorado Supreme Court is pondering whether law firms may charge…
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Colorado Supreme Court rules, 4-3, state’s oil and gas regulators not empowered to resolve contract dispute
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By 4-3, Colorado’s Supreme Court on Monday ruled the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission does not have the authority to resolve a contract dispute between a well operator in Garfield County and those who are owed royalties from the extraction operations, putting a stop to a half-decade of ping-ponging between venues. The majority’s decision…
