monica marquez
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‘This is how innocent people are convicted,’ defendant alleges wrongful conviction to Supreme Court
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When police arrested Nora Hilda Rios-Vargas for the burglary of a Weld County trailer home where someone had stolen $15,000 in jewelry and $3,000 in coins, there was only one definitive piece of evidence linking her to the crime scene: shards of a bloody latex glove with her DNA on it. At the same time,…
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When is it a felony or a misdemeanor to spit on a cop?
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Colorado’s Supreme Court settled on a definition of what state lawmakers meant when they made it a felony to spit on police officers with an intent to harm, agreeing on Monday to vacate a woman’s convictions because a trial judge’s attempt at defining “harm” was incorrect. Spitting on a first responder could constitute either a…
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State Supreme Court wades into intra-judicial conflict over rights of employees
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Colorado’s Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether judges have the power to review personnel decisions involving judicial employees, a rare case in which different parts of the judicial branch are arguing for opposite interpretations of existing rules. During oral arguments on Wednesday, the state’s justices heard that judicial employees are legally different from…
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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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Municipalities, state agencies warn Supreme Court against opening floodgates to lawsuits
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Nearly all of the state’s municipalities and a handful of state agencies are pleading with the Colorado Supreme Court to reverse a lower court’s ruling that eliminated the strict 28-day deadline for challenging decisions of government bodies. Liquor license denials, local governments’ discipline of personnel, and the Department of Corrections’ decisions about inmates are some…
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State Supreme Court affirms heightened responsibility for counties to American Indian families
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The Colorado Supreme Court affirmed on Monday that counties have a heightened responsibility to help American Indian families remain together amid child welfare proceedings — a standard that Denver had met despite a mother’s repeated relapses from her treatment program. The justices interpreted a key provision of the Indian Child Welfare Act, a 1978 federal law…
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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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Appeals court orders frozen embryos be turned over for destruction in case implicating religion
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The state’s second-highest court ordered a divorced couple’s frozen embryos be turned over to the husband for destruction, finding an El Paso County judge disobeyed both the Colorado Supreme Court and Court of Appeals’ instructions for resolving disputes over fertilized eggs. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals on Thursday issued its second decision…
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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…
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Justices say Adams County prosecutor’s comments do not require reversal of convictions
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Although the Colorado Supreme Court has established that prosecutors cannot imply criminal defendants are guilty for exercising their Fifth Amendment right to silence or their Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial, the justices on Tuesday decided an Adams County prosecutor’s comments to a jury did not cross that threshold. In a case that centered…
