maria berkenkotter
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State Supreme Court agrees Weld County gas pipeline is not a public utility
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A 62-mile pipeline that gathers raw natural gas in Weld County and transports it to processing facilities is not a public utility under state law, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled on Monday. The justices heard the appeal of William C. Danks, who owns a farm in the county and filed his original complaint with the…
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Park County judge had no authority to compel visitation between siblings, state Supreme Court says
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The Colorado Supreme Court found a Park County judge lacked the legal authority to order two siblings to visit with their brother as part of the latter’s child welfare proceedings. Although Colorado law charges local departments of human services with promoting “frequent contact” between siblings in foster care and gives foster children the right to…
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Forced blood draws for DUI suspects under Colorado Supreme Court scrutiny
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Colorado’s Supreme Court justices appeared largely skeptical of the idea that police officers are forbidden from involuntarily drawing blood from a suspected drunk driver, even if there is a court-approved warrant to do so. During oral arguments on Thursday, the court explored the legislature’s intentions in enacting the “expressed consent law,” which established that motorists,…
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Judges, justices give candid look at judicial operations at educational conference
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Six of Colorado’s seven Supreme Court justices and more than one-third of the state’s Court of Appeals on Friday provided a candid glimpse into judicial branch operations, with subjects ranging from pandemic recovery and recent precedent-setting decisions to the Supreme Court’s increased pattern of hearing appeals directly. Among the key points raised at the 2022 Appellate…
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State Supreme Court attempts to illuminate meaning of tail light law
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Could drivers change their vehicles’ tail lights to match the Denver Broncos’ colors? Or emit a kaleidoscope of colors from their cars? Colorado’s Supreme Court on Thursday repeatedly raised those far-fetched scenarios as they grappled with the meaning of a state law governing tail lamp colors. As written, drivers must have “a red light plainly…
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Lawmakers urge Supreme Court committee to address racial bias in jury selection
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Four Democratic lawmakers have written to the Colorado Supreme Court’s criminal rules committee urging it to address racial bias in jury selection following resistance from prosecutors to a legislative proposal on the subject. Last month, the sponsors of Senate Bill 128 declined to move forward with their legislation after all 22 elected district attorneys registered…
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State Supreme Court agrees Denver officers lacked reasonable suspicion to detain man
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Two Denver police officers did not have reasonable suspicion of criminal activity when they boxed in a driver with their patrol car, the Colorado Supreme Court decided, deeming the officers’ actions an unconstitutional seizure under the Fourth Amendment. The decision on Monday upheld a lower court’s ruling that suppressed evidence from Alexander Brown’s February 2020…
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State Supreme Court reverses man’s convictions for handling of race-based juror dismissal
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A man serving a 144-year sentence for kidnapping, sexually assaulting and trying to kill a teenager will receive a new trial, after the Colorado Supreme Court decided Monday that a Denver judge improperly handled the defendant’s assertion of racial discrimination in his jury selection. Members of the court found the prosecutor in Ray Ojeda’s 2015…
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Colorado Supreme Court justices knew about memo alleging misconduct 2 years before it became public
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Colorado’s Supreme Court justices were generally aware of a memo containing allegations about judicial misconduct nearly two years before it was made public, according to testimony one of the justices gave in an unrelated federal lawsuit deposition. It is the first acknowledgment that the members of the court knew about the memo shortly after it…
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Investigations into alleged judicial misconduct underway as Colorado signs contracts
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The Colorado Judicial Department on Wednesday announced it had signed a pair of contracts for independent investigations into allegations of widespread misconduct across the branch that included a quid-pro-quo deal to a former high-ranking official who threatened a sex-discrimination lawsuit that would reveal it all. The contracts, to total no more than $350,000, were awarded…
