judge rebecca freyre
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Appeals court decides violations of child custody orders may be prosecuted per child
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Colorado’s second-highest court concluded for the first time on Wednesday that a defendant may be charged with violating a child custody order based on the number of children affected, not the number of orders violated. Mesa County jurors convicted Tiffany Jean Wilson on four counts of violating a custody order. She drove off with her…
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Justices debate what to do when governments withhold key info from plaintiffs
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court seemed to be on different pages when they considered on Tuesday whether a woman injured by a sidewalk defect in Manitou Springs was forever barred from suing the actual entity responsible because she did not learn until it was too late that Colorado Springs was the proper defendant. The…
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Appeals court, for third time, confirms new trial necessary for Alamosa County judge’s public trial violation
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Colorado’s second-highest court confirmed for the third time last week that an Alamosa County judge violated a defendant’s constitutional right to a public trial, which requires the reversal of his convictions. The unusual number of opinions in Gilberto Andres Montoya’s appeal, and the shifting rationale for why a new trial is necessary, stems in part…
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Appeals court reverses murder conviction after Denver judge violated public trial right
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Colorado’s second-highest court reversed a defendant’s murder conviction on Thursday because a Denver judge violated his constitutional right to a public trial. Due to an unusually large jury pool at Edward R. Sandoval’s 2022 trial, Chief Judge Christopher J. Baumann did not allow observers to be present in his courtroom during jury selection. Although the…
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Colorado justices consider whether man can be convicted for convincing mom to lie for him
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There was no dispute that Michael Thomas Hupke asked his mother to lie to his parole officer on his behalf. Further, Hupke acknowledged Mesa County prosecutors could have charged him as an accomplice to his mother’s deceit, or for soliciting her to do it. But Hupke maintained prosecutors could not do what they actually did:…
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Colorado justices weigh ‘cascade of errors’ in Arapahoe County murder trial
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There was no dispute that Terrence G. Davis died by gunshot in an Aurora alleyway in 2017. At the trial of Davis’ suspected killer, jurors reached two conclusions. First, they believed he was guilty of second-degree murder for causing Davis’ death. Second, they were asked whether the defendant used a gun. No, said the jury, he…
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Appeals court finds no discrimination in dismissals of jurors of color across 3 cases
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Colorado’s second-highest court recently agreed prosecutors did not unconstitutionally remove jurors of color in three criminal cases for racial reasons. The Court of Appeals encountered significant variation in how the trial judges approached the prosecution’s dismissal of each juror. One judge explained the circumstances at length, one judge gave virtually no explanation and the third…
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Boulder County residents cannot sue over firearm discharge on federal land, appeals court rules
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Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday that two residents of Boulder County could not sue the county’s commissioners for walking back a policy originally banning firearms discharge on nearby land owned by the U.S. government. Boulder County leaders enacted a resolution in 2022 expanding the area near Sugarloaf Mountain in which it was unlawful to…
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Divided Colorado Supreme Court: Criminal trial livestreams not enough to satisfy public trial right
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A slim majority of the Colorado Supreme Court decided on Monday that livestreaming criminal proceedings without also opening the physical courtroom to spectators may violate the constitutional guarantee of a public trial. Addressing an issue that arose during the early COVID-19 pandemic, the justices considered whether it was acceptable for trial judges to restrict their…
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Colorado justices to examine what happens when governments withhold key info from injured plaintiffs
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The Colorado Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will decide whether injured plaintiffs do not have to strictly comply with the legal deadline for notifying the government if a public entity’s conduct makes it impossible to timely identify who should be sued. At least three of the court’s seven members must agree to hear a case…
