saguache county
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10th Circuit agrees Saguache County jail supervisor can be held liable for detainee’s suicide
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The federal appeals court based in Denver agreed on Wednesday that a jury should decide whether a Saguache County jail supervisor is liable for failing to prevent the death of a suicidal detainee. Last year, a trial judge declined to grant immunity to Capt. Kenneth Wilson for the November 2019 suicide of Jackson Maes in…
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Colorado justices, 4-3, reject defendant’s challenge to biased judge
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Although the Colorado Supreme Court acknowledged on Monday that a Saguache County judge was disqualified by law from presiding over a criminal case because she briefly represented the defendant before her appointment to the bench, a majority concluded there was nothing it could do because the defense knew about the conflict and stayed silent. By…
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Colorado justices spar over need for new trial due to biased judge
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When public defender Amanda C. Hopkins appeared in Saguache County District Court on April 17, 2018, her client failed to show up. The hearing was over in a matter of minutes. Records at the time did not document her brief substitution for the regular public defender assigned to the case. Three months later, Hopkins became…
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Colorado Supreme Court to hear case of conflicted judge
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When a judge took office in Saguache County four years ago, she presided over a criminal case in which she previously, as a public defender, had appeared briefly on behalf of the defendant. No one raised a red flag at the time. Now, the Colorado Supreme Court has agreed to review a split decision from…
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Federal judge green-lights jail suicide lawsuit against Saguache County for trial
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A jury will decide whether Saguache County Sheriff Dan Warwick, one of his deputies and the board of county commissioners are liable for the 2019 suicide death of Jackson Maes in the jurisdiction’s jail. In a Feb. 3 order, U.S. District Court Judge Nina Y. Wang dismissed a number of constitutional rights claims against the…
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Appeals court dismisses dentist’s defamation lawsuit against woman who left negative reviews
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Colorado’s second-highest court has dismissed a dentist’s defamation lawsuit against a Crestone woman who left him negative reviews following her unsatisfactory root canals, basing its ruling on a recently-enacted state law designed to block meritless lawsuits involving First Amendment activity. Creekside Endodontics of Lone Tree and its dentist, Andrew Stubbs, sued former patient Kathryn Sullivan…
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For Saguache County jail death, judge declines to toss request for billion-dollar compensation
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With the Saguache County sheriff, board of county commissioners and various employees of the sheriff’s office facing a request for up to $1.68 billion in damages for the death of a suicidal detainee in the jail, the defendants asked a federal judge to rule that the vast majority of the dollar figure was a nonstarter…
