judge ted tow
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Appeals court reinstates Garfield County arson charge
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Colorado’s second-highest court reinstated a Garfield County defendant’s arson charge on Thursday, concluding a trial judge improperly credited a witness’s claim that she alone was responsible for starting the fire. A sheriff’s deputy responded to a brush fire near Parachute in May 2024, next to a residential neighborhood. Witness statements and video evidence suggested Tiana…
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The influencers? Some Colorado appeals judges outpace colleagues in setting legal precedent
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A handful of judges on Colorado’s second-highest court are producing substantially more precedent-setting opinions than their colleagues, which create binding interpretations of the law that reach beyond individual cases. The Court of Appeals issues approximately 1,700 opinions each year. A small number receives state Supreme Court review, but the appellate court is otherwise the final…
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10th Circuit judge creates vacancy, district court gets new chief judge | COURT CRAWL
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Welcome to Court Crawl, Colorado Politics’ roundup of news from the third branch of government. A longtime member of the Denver-based federal appeals court will give the president a vacancy to fill, plus Colorado’s federal trial court will see a change in its leadership this week. Colorado Supreme Court update • At some point today, the…
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Appeals judges tell Boulder students about workload, ‘attack mode’ during school visit
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Three judges on Colorado’s second-highest court traveled to Boulder on Tuesday to hear oral arguments in real cases and field questions from students about their professional paths, their workload on the Court of Appeals, and their approach to interacting with attorneys. “Sometimes, I regret my tone. I will admit that I get a little too…
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Appeals court clarifies what materials judges may rely on for postconviction decisions
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Colorado’s second-highest court clarified on Thursday that trial judges who are deciding whether to grant relief to convicted defendants may rely on the materials attached to, or referenced in, the parties’ arguments. In contrast to direct appeals of criminal convictions, which usually allege errors before trial, at trial or at sentencing, defendants also have the…
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Appeals judge asks Colorado Supreme Court to once again clarify magistrate rules
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A member of Colorado’s second-highest court urged the state Supreme Court last week to revise confusing language in the rules governing magistrates, less than two weeks after an attempted cleanup of the rules took effect. Magistrates are judicial employees who are not judges but who handle aspects of cases in the trial courts. Litigants may consent…
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Colorado justices weigh overlap between child prostitution offenses
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court last week appeared willing to uphold a man’s conviction for an attempted child prostitution offense, which the state’s second-highest court previously found to be a violation of his right to equal protection under the law. An El Paso County jury convicted Javier Vega Dominguez of two attempted child prostitution…
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Colorado Supreme Court struggles with rubric for significant reductions in parenting time
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The Colorado Supreme Court attempted to identify on Wednesday the circumstances under which judges may reduce the number of days a parent spends with their child post-divorce without it rising to the level of a “restriction” that requires more rigorous justification under the law. During oral arguments, some members expressed discomfort with a recent Court…
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In Tina Peters appeal, judges telegraph some degree of reversal | ANALYSIS
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Former Mesa County clerk Tina Peters seems poised to walk away from the state’s Court of Appeals with her criminal convictions largely intact, even as a three-judge appellate panel raised concerns about her sentence and one specific conviction. Peters, a Republican who served one term following her 2018 election, is serving a roughly nine-year prison…
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Appeals court shuts down path to challenge convictions if lawyer tells jury that defendant is guilty
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Colorado’s second-highest court concluded on Wednesday that defendants cannot challenge whether the evidence was sufficient to sustain their convictions if their lawyer argues to the jury that it should find the defendant guilty. The U.S. Supreme Court has provided guidance in recent years about when criminal defense attorneys may intentionally concede their client’s guilt. In…
