melissa hart
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Oil, gas tax law under consideration by Colorado Supreme Court
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The Colorado Supreme Court stepped in this week to clarify whether the owners of a Montezuma County oil and gas formation have the opportunity to challenge a retroactive $2 million increase to their collective property tax bill. The underlying sequence of events already made its way to the justices once in 2017, when the court…
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‘Once-in-a-lifetime experience’: Supreme Court, students engage at Colorado Springs school
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It took social studies teacher Ty Allen several years to bring the Colorado Supreme Court to his high school in Colorado Springs, but Allen’s efforts paid off on Thursday when the state’s seven justices appeared before an auditorium of Pine Creek High School students and staff. “I’ve been reaching out to them every couple of…
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State Supreme Court hears cases on sleeping juror, ‘straw purchase’ law
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The Colorado Supreme Court traveled to Colorado Springs to hear two cases on Thursday, exploring whether a sleeping juror implicated a defendant’s constitutional right to a jury of 12, and whether there was sufficient evidence to convict a woman for violating the state law that prohibits “straw purchases” of firearms. Oral arguments at Pine Creek…
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State Supreme Court mulls whether right to counsel differs by defendants’ wealth
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The U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted the Sixth Amendment to guarantee criminal defendants the right to effective assistance from an attorney and the right to hire the counsel of their choosing if they can afford it. Indigent defendants, by contrast, currently have no right to choose which lawyer is appointed for them. But now, Colorado’s…
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Despite parents, child leaving state, Supreme Court rules Colorado kept jurisdiction in welfare case
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Even though the parents and the child at the center of a welfare case had all left Colorado at the time of the decision, the state Supreme Court on Monday agreed that an El Paso County judge retained the ability to terminate the parents’ legal rights over their daughter. The justices concluded that based on…
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Divided state Supreme Court says judges cannot review discipline of judicial workers
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In an extraordinary decision pitting one part of the state’s judicial branch against another part, the Colorado Supreme Court decided on Monday, by 4-3, that trial judges are not permitted to hear disciplinary appeals involving judicial employees – an option afforded to other government workers. The majority of justices believed the court system’s personnel rules made…
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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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State Supreme Court upholds discipline against divorce attorney for misconduct
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The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld multiple findings of misconduct against a Denver divorce attorney for prioritizing her own payment above her client’s interests, going so far as to conceal a check she should have disclosed to the other side. Following proceedings before the state’s presiding disciplinary judge last year, Brenda L. Storey received…
