judge terry fox
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Jeffco murder conviction overturned after appeals court finds police unconstitutionally accessed cell phone
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A man serving a life sentence for murder will receive a new trial after Colorado’s second-highest court concluded last week that law enforcement unconstitutionally used a “shortcut” to unlock his phone in time for his original trial. In reaching its conclusion, a three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals rejected the idea that a cell…
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Appeals court finds numerous errors in 2 Mesa, El Paso County trials but upholds convictions
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Colorado’s second-highest court determined last week that numerous errors, including prosecutorial misconduct, pervaded a pair of criminal trials, but the missteps were not severe enough to warrant reversal of the defendants’ convictions. In El Paso County, jurors convicted Daniel Caleb Schwenk of assault and menacing, but could not reach consensus on an attempted murder charge.…
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Colorado Supreme Court takes up 6 cases on involuntary intoxication, malicious prosecution, child neglect trials
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The Colorado Supreme Court announced on Monday it will hear appeals in six cases, including the question of whether a person can claim he knowingly ingested one substance that was secretly laced with another behavior-altering substance as a defense to criminal charges. At least three of the court’s seven members must agree to grant an…
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Divided appeals court rules child neglect determinations cannot hinge on uncertain effects of drug exposure
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Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday that a recent change to the state’s child neglect laws requires more than just the possibility an infant exposed to drugs at birth will experience negative health effects in the future. Prior to 2020, a court could declare a child neglected if, among other things, they tested positive at…
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Colorado Supreme Court takes up cases on severity of vehicular homicide, disclosure of child abuse reports
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The Colorado Supreme Court announced on Monday it will hear cases addressing the severity of sentences for vehicular homicide caused by intoxication and the level of information about child abuse reports that can be disclosed in open records requests. At least three of the seven justices must agree to take up an appeal. ‘Grave and…
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Colorado Supreme Court, 5-2, says no new trial following ‘overt, in-court racism’
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The Colorado Supreme Court concluded on Monday that a Black defendant did not deserve a new trial after one juror disclosed he moved to the overwhelmingly White jurisdiction because he “didn’t want diversity,” and the trial judge refused to dismiss him for bias. By 5-2, the court believed Reginald Keith Clark had not shown the…
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Appeals court splits with itself on statewide noise limits, sets up Supreme Court intervention
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Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday set the stage for Supreme Court intervention by finding local governments cannot authorize concerts on private, for-profit land to exceed noise limits under state law — three months after another set of appellate judges reached the opposite conclusion. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals concluded the state’s Noise Abatement Act…
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Weld County drug conspiracy conviction overturned due to lack of conspiracy
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Weld County prosecutors did not prove a man was guilty of a conspiracy to distribute because the onetime, aborted transaction of an ounce of methamphetamine could not support the concept of “conspiracy,” Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday. Jessie Rodriguez Sr. is serving a four-year prison sentence following his conviction in 2022. An undercover law…
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Colorado appeals court upholds fine, requirement for ‘dark money’ group to disclose spending
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Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday agreed a group that spent $4 million backing conservative causes on the ballot in 2020 is required to disclose its contributions and spending, and pay a $40,000 fine for failing to register as an advocacy group. A trial judge previously believed Unite for Colorado, which spent roughly $17 million during…
