Author: Michael Karlik
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Colorado justices skeptical of challenge to water enterprises’ eminent domain power
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court appeared receptive on Wednesday to the notion that water-related enterprises have the legal authority to exercise the governmental power of eminent domain over private property. An enterprise is a government-owned business that provides fee-based services. In 1993, lawmakers authorized the creation of “water activity enterprises” to provide a secure…
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Colorado justices skeptical that intimate messages relevant to assault case
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court seemed to agree on Tuesday that a Douglas County judge acted reasonably by blocking evidence of a defendant’s BDSM-related conversations with the victim in his trial for assault and false imprisonment. Jurors found Donald Louis Gerle guilty in 2022. In the prosecution’s telling, Gerle began beating his alleged victim following…
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Second appeals judge voices concerns about new ‘reasonable doubt’ instruction
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Another member of Colorado’s second-highest court registered his concern on Thursday that a portion of the recently revised “reasonable doubt” definition improperly lowers the prosecution’s burden to prove a defendant guilty. Judge Daniel M. Taubman wrote that the current instruction advising jurors to acquit whenever there is “a real possibility the defendant is not guilty”…
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Colorado Supreme Court blocks ‘child-to-parent violence’ testimony in Boulder County case
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The Colorado Supreme Court concluded on Friday that a Boulder County judge incorrectly green-lit a psychologist’s expert testimony when the defendant had not laid the necessary groundwork for the evidence. State law requires criminal defendants to provide notice and undergo a court-ordered examination if they want to introduce expert evidence of their mental condition at…
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Colorado justices concerned about retrying defendant after jury signaled acquittal
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Some members of the Colorado Supreme Court appeared uncomfortable on Tuesday with allowing a criminal defendant to stand trial a second time after a Larimer County jury signaled it was deadlocked on some counts but had found him not guilty of the more serious charges. Omar Alexander Mena stood trial last summer for three counts…
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Colorado justices question process for parole board appeals
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The Colorado Supreme Court considered on Tuesday whether criminal defendants whose parole is revoked must appeal the decision internally to the state’s parole board before seeking review by a judge. The process for returning someone to incarceration for violating the conditions of their parole first entails a hearing by one member of the Colorado State…
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Colorado justices weigh potentially faulty jury instruction in child abuse case
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Members of the Colorado Supreme Court questioned on Tuesday whether a San Miguel County jury convicted a defendant of child abuse resulting in death, even though the instructions potentially allowed jurors to avoid finding that the child abuse resulted in death. Previously, the state’s Court of Appeals reversed the convictions and 64-year prison sentence of…
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Federal judge sanctions Pueblo for destroying evidence in lawsuit
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A federal judge imposed sanctions on the city of Pueblo last week after it disposed of a key piece of evidence shortly after the plaintiffs filed suit seeking damages for the destruction of their home. On June 25, 2022, a city bus crashed into David V. and Nancy M. Salama’s house. One year later, they…
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10th Circuit orders lawyer to pay $1,000 for faulty AI citations
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The Denver-based federal appeals court ordered a lawyer on Monday to pay $1,000 to the opposing side for submitting a legal filing with fake case citations generated by artificial intelligence. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit acknowledged Kusmin Linda Amarsingh had expressed remorse over using unverified ChatGPT citations.…
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Supreme Court finalists selected, federal judges slash backlogs | COURT CRAWL
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Welcome to Court Crawl, Colorado Politics’ roundup of news from the third branch of government. Coloradans learned who the three finalists are for a state Supreme Court vacancy, and new data show that Colorado’s federal trial judges reduced their backlog of motions in civil cases. Supreme Court vacancy • With the unexpected departure of Justice Melissa…
