judge ted tow
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Appeals court finds constitutional violation with man’s child sex offense
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Colorado’s second-highest court concluded on Thursday that an Arapahoe County man’s conviction for unlawful sexual contact on a child violated his constitutional rights and must be vacated. Jurors convicted Lucas Bienvenido Mena in 2021 of multiple sex offenses after hearing he pushed a 12-year-old relative into a bathroom, touched her genitals and took photos of…
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Appeals court clarifies path for claiming lawyer was constitutionally ineffective in contempt proceedings
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Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday clarified that people who are held in contempt of court do have a way to challenge their convictions based on their lawyer’s allegedly ineffective assistance. The U.S. Supreme Court has long recognized that a convicted defendant may argue their constitutional rights were violated because their attorney’s performance was objectively unreasonable in a…
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2 appeals judges warn of diverging interpretations to Colorado’s free speech protection law
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Two members of Colorado’s second-highest court warned in separate cases on Thursday that they believe judges are drifting away from the legislature’s directive for evaluating whether defamation lawsuits should be dismissed under a 2019 law designed to protect free speech. More than two years ago, Judges Ted C. Tow III and Michael H. Berger were…
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Defamation suit may proceed against conservative radio outlet, talk show host: appeals court
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A former executive of Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems may proceed with his defamation lawsuit against the owner of a conservative talk radio station and one of its hosts, Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday. The latest in a string of recent decisions favoring plaintiff Eric Coomer, a three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals concluded Coomer…
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Colorado justices weigh constitutional implications of livestreaming criminal trials
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With the Sixth Amendment guaranteeing criminal defendants the right to a public trial, members of the Colorado Supreme Court grappled on Tuesday with a question that may have never arisen without a global pandemic: If a judge requires spectators to watch the trial remotely, is there a constitutional violation? In a pair of cases stemming…
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Colorado justices to hear cases on defendant who blamed mom, car rental companies as insurers
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The Colorado Supreme Court announced last week that it will analyze whether a person can be convicted of attempting to influence a public servant when they enlist another party to perform the deceit, and whether vehicle rental companies can be held legally liable as insurers when they choose to offer insurance policies. At least three…
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Appeals judge slams Denver prosecutor for ‘Dexter’ references at trial
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One member of Colorado’s second-highest court criticized a Denver prosecutor on Thursday for repeatedly comparing a defendant’s actions to the television show “Dexter” during a jury trial. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals declined to order a new murder trial for defendant Joseph Alden Corey. The majority conceded the prosecutor’s references to a…
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Colorado appeals judge says lawyers should respect and use gender pronouns
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One member of Colorado’s second-highest court told attorneys on Wednesday that state law and the principles of the legal profession require them to be respectful of others’ gender identities, notwithstanding the inevitable mistakes that are made in good faith. “I will be the first to tell you the legal system has a long way to…
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Montezuma County man’s drug conviction overturned because prosecution presented skewed narrative
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Colorado’s second-highest court last week overturned a Montezuma County man’s drug conviction after concluding a judge allowed the prosecution to present a misleading version of what happened during the defendant’s arrest. At the 2022 trial of Ramon Alberto Dejesus III, jurors saw a series of largely muted videos depicting Dejesus’ arrest and booking into jail. At…
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Colorado Springs not liable for collision resulting from inoperative traffic light, appeals court says
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Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last month that the city of Colorado Springs cannot be held liable for a vehicle crash in which traffic lights were functioning normally in one direction and were inoperative in the perpendicular direction. The Colorado Governmental Immunity Act, with limited exceptions, shields public entities from lawsuits over injuries they cause. Its…