judge neeti pawar
-
Appeals court declines to overturn defendant’s ‘3 strikes’ sentence
—
by
Colorado’s second-highest court concluded on Thursday that a defendant was sentenced under the state’s “three strikes” law in a manner that did not comply with the U.S. Constitution, but the mistake did not require reversal. Known as the Habitual Criminal Act, Colorado’s law requires judges to impose three or four times the maximum sentence if a…
-
Divided appeals court upholds convictions despite ‘troubling and unfair’ contradictory police testimony
—
by
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…
-
Appeals court finds Wheat Ridge officer lacked probable cause to arrest defendant
—
by
Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday concluded a Wheat Ridge officer lacked probable cause to arrest a man because the information suggesting criminal activity was too minimal to act upon. Corporal Jeremy Schmitz was patrolling a truck stop off of Interstate 70 when he encountered a Toyota 4Runner that a database identified as stolen. The vehicle…
-
Colorado human services agency faces buzzsaw at state Supreme Court as justices critique non-disclosure argument
—
by
Several members of the Colorado Supreme Court pushed back on Monday against the state’s position that it could not disclose the number of child abuse reports at individual group living facilities because doing so would improperly reveal a person’s address — even though such addresses are already in the public domain. The Colorado Department of…
-
Colorado justices decide shorter timeline applies to lawsuits alleging minimum wage violations
—
by
The Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday that plaintiffs alleging their employer violated the state’s minimum wage law have up to three years to file a lawsuit and not, as the appeals court believed, six years. With Colorado’s Minimum Wage Act silent on the subject, the justices were confronted with two options: Justice Maria E.…
-
Colorado Supreme Court to hear 2 Denver criminal appeals
—
by
The Colorado Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will decide whether the state’s second-highest court correctly overturned a defendant’s vehicular eluding conviction due to the faulty wording of a jury instruction. The justices also will review whether the Court of Appeals properly rejected an appeal by prosecutors that was filed beyond the procedural deadline,…
-
Colorado Supreme Court weighs time to sue for minimum wage violations in absence of directive
—
by
With the state’s minimum wage law silent on the subject, the Colorado Supreme Court attempted to figure out on Tuesday how much time workers have to file claims against their employers. There were seemingly two options: Up to three years from the violation, as is the case for claims under the neighboring Colorado Wage Claim Act;…
-
‘Deceivingly complicated’: Appeals judges talk to lawyers about postconviction cases
—
by
Members of Colorado’s second-highest court told lawyers and judges on Thursday what they are looking for when a convicted defendant argues they are entitled to relief for reasons beyond the typical array of trial-related errors. In contrast to direct appeals of criminal convictions, which usually allege errors before trial, at trial or at sentencing, defendants…
-
Appeals court rules employers cannot deduct their own business costs from employee wages
—
by
Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday that employers cannot deduct from employees’ wages any costs that are “inherent in the job,” and any work agreements allowing for such an arrangement are unlawful. In the case at hand, Elora Buenger worked as a cosmetologist for 303 Beauty Bar LLC, also known as 303 Salon Lohi. She…
-
Appeals court upholds dismissal of Black juror for negative experiences with police
—
by
Colorado’s second-highest court agreed earlier this month that an Arapahoe County prosecutor did not remove a Black woman from a jury because of her race, even though she had explicitly attributed her prior negative interactions with police to “the color of my skin.” Under longstanding U.S. Supreme Court precedent, intentional race-based discrimination in jury selection…
