maria berkenkotter
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State Supreme Court reverses judge who ordered entire DA’s office off of murder case
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By a 6-1 decision on Monday, the Colorado Supreme Court reversed a Gunnison County judge who took the extraordinary step of barring the entire district attorney’s office from prosecuting a murder case. Chief Judge J. Steven Patrick in June granted the request of defendant Jorge Solis to remove the Seventh Judicial District Attorney’s Office from…
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From ‘eccentric’ family to pandemic-era justice: Maria Berkenkotter ceremonially sworn in to Supreme Court
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Justice Maria E. Berkenkotter poked gentle fun at the unusually large gap between her first day on the job in January 2021 and her public swearing-in nearly 21 months later. “Thank you all so much for being here to celebrate the 633rd-day anniversary of my appointment,” Berkenkotter said to laughter during her late-September ceremony. Gov.…
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State Supreme Court continues to ponder headaches of DUI ruling
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Colorado’s Supreme Court justices this week once again heard about the difficulties they created by upending prosecutions of felony drunk driving cases nearly two years ago. Although driving under the influence in Colorado is typically a misdemeanor, the legislature in 2015 established a felony DUI offense for people who have at least three prior drunk…
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Technical difficulties, constitutional rights at center of Colorado Supreme Court parental case
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court appeared leery on Tuesday of concluding a father experienced a violation of his constitutional rights when a Jefferson County judge terminated the legal relationship with his child. There was no dispute that the man, identified as R.B., had notice of the hearing and a lawyer who advocated on his…
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Colorado Supreme Court’s frustration at state agency boils over in juvenile case
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court lashed out on Tuesday at the state agency responsible for overseeing certain mental and behavioral health services to juvenile defendants, accusing it of flouting the law. In an appeal out of Weld County, the justices amplified their frustration with the Office of Behavioral Health that previously surfaced in 2019,…
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‘Puffery’ or illegal? State Supreme Court evaluates statements made by Denver energy corporation
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When Jagged Peak Energy Inc. began publicly selling shares of its stock in 2017, it allegedly misrepresented key aspects of its extraction operation to investors and overstated its ability to produce oil and gas. Now, the Colorado Supreme Court will decide whether the 8,000-person Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System may sue Denver-based Jagged Peak…
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State Supreme Court mulls how much evidence is enough to prove identity in prior convictions
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An El Paso County jury convicted Enrique Gorostieta in 2019 for possession of a weapon by a prior offender. To determine he was the same Enrique Gorostieta who had a 2016 drug conviction on his record, jurors heard that the name, birthdate and county matched, and they also received a physical description of the defendant…
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State Supreme Court examines whether exclusion of wife from courtroom violated defendants’ rights
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Christopher Nicholas Cruse and Terrel Shameek Turner stood trial together in Arapahoe County in 2017 for the robbery of a marijuana dispensary where Cruse worked. On the third morning of the jury trial, the prosecution informed the trial judge that Cruse’s wife was arrested the prior day for “an encounter” in the hallway with one…
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State Supreme Court wipes away $1.8 million in interest payments by Ford after losing lawsuit
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When someone files a personal injury lawsuit in Colorado and wins at trial, the plaintiff may receive not only monetary damages, but interest on that amount starting from the date of the injury. But what happens when the defendant appeals the judgment, goes all the way to the Supreme Court, and wins a new trial…
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Fractured Supreme Court finds Adams County defendant did not invoke right to counsel in custody
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In an unusual decision on Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled 5-2 that a criminal defendant did not clearly invoke his constitutional right to an attorney during a police interrogation, even though a majority of the justices actually believed the opposite was true. The appeal out of Adams County boiled down to a single moment…
