judge timothy schutz
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Defendant’s ‘train wreck’ of a statement prompts appeals court to order new trial
Colorado’s second-highest court ordered a new trial on Thursday for a defendant whose 16-minute statement mid-trial, which had no basis in criminal procedure and was described by one judge as a “train wreck,” resulted in a constitutionally unfair proceeding. Jefferson County prosecutors charged Riddick Amoako-Asiamah with large-scale marijuana cultivation or distribution based on the substantial amount…
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Colorado Supreme Court accepts cases on campaign transparency, crime victim restitution
The Colorado Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will review whether the state’s requirement that ballot issue advocacy groups disclose the name of their legal representative on their election communications violates the First Amendment. At least three of the court’s seven members must agree to hear an appeal. The justices also accepted a case implicating Colorado’s crime…
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Lakewood must release police body cam footage of teen’s fatal shooting, appeals court rules
Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last week that Lakewood is obligated to release body-worn camera footage of police fatally shooting a 17-year-old girl, notwithstanding her surviving family’s objections. A three-judge Court of Appeals panel interpreted a key transparency requirement in Colorado’s landmark police accountability law from 2020. Judge Timothy J. Schutz wrote that legislators crafted “a…
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Colorado Supreme Court to hear cases on rezoning via ballot box, defaulting defendants
The justices may also intervene in two ongoing criminal cases
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Divided appeals court says COVID-19 did not cause ‘direct physical loss’ to senior care facilities
Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Wednesday that the COVID-19 pandemic and related public health orders did not cause a “direct physical loss” to the property of various assisted living facilities to the point of triggering insurance coverage. By 2-1, a three-judge Court of Appeals panel relied on the reasoning of recent federal court opinions and…
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Ex-Lochbuie officer’s rights not violated with disclosure of misconduct finding, appeals court rules
Colorado’s second-highest court concluded last month that a former law enforcement officer cannot sue his employer under one police accountability law for reporting its misconduct finding to another agency, as required under a different police accountability law. Officer Michael Oliveira sued leaders of the Lochbuie Police Department under Senate Bill 217, also known as the Enhance Law…
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Divided appeals court upholds judge’s decade-old violation of restitution law
Colorado’s second-highest court turned aside a defendant’s challenge earlier this month to a judge’s decade-old order that he pay $28,518 in crime victim restitution, even though the judge failed to comply with state law in doing so. In Colorado, as part of sentencing, judges must consider whether defendants owe financial restitution to their victims. If so,…
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Colorado’s new ‘reasonable doubt’ instruction upheld, despite cautions from some appeals judges
Colorado’s second-highest court has upheld the recently reworded definition of “reasonable doubt” that appears in the template jury instructions for criminal trials, which generated controversy at the time of its debut. In a pair of precedent-setting opinions issued the same day last week, two separate panels for the Court of Appeals found no legal deficiency…
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Colorado Supreme Court skeptical of broad municipal power to permit violations of state noise limits
Members of the Colorado Supreme Court attempted on Thursday to decipher a 38-year-old amendment to the state’s noise pollution law to determine if local governments may permit any for-profit entity to host events on private property that exceed the statewide decibel limits. In doing so, multiple justices were openly skeptical of the city of Salida’s…
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Appeals court agrees municipal domestic violence conviction is grounds for denying gun purchase
Colorado’s second-highest court ruled for the first time last week that a domestic violence conviction under a municipal ordinance will bar a person from purchasing a firearm, thanks to a recent revision in federal law. The question required a three-judge Court of Appeals panel to answer whether a Denver man’s local domestic violence charge, while…