Author: Michael Karlik

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save A three-member disciplinary panel issued a public censure on Friday of a former trial judge from northeastern Colorado, the first such punishment handed down after voters amended the state constitution last year to reform judicial discipline. The July 18 order was notable not for the sanction…

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save A federal judge on Monday directed the government to respond to a claim that it moved a man in immigration detention outside of Colorado, despite a temporary restraining order forbidding such a transfer. Because of the federal rules governing immigration cases, the vast majority of Hossein Batooie’s…

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save A federal judge rejected Elbert County’s attempt to dismiss a disability rights lawsuit against it earlier this month, after a woman alleged she sustained further injuries after being forced to walk home 8.8 miles from the jail overnight. Amy McCraken has a prosthetic limb from…

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save A federal judge agreed on Thursday that a jury would decide whether a corrections officer violated the constitutional rights of an incarcerated Muslim man by requiring him to shave his beard upon intake. Tajuddin Ashaheed entered the Denver Reception and Diagnostic Center in July 2016…

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Welcome to Court Crawl, Colorado Politics’ roundup of news from the third branch of government. The state Supreme Court’s 2024-2025 term had some interesting developments, plus two federal judges have adjusted their terminology to better describe what they’re doing. Supreme Court term in review •  The…

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Five Denver Health employees and the organization itself will stand trial on claims that they provided a constitutionally deficient level of medical care to an elderly jail detainee who died from severe health problems, a federal judge ruled on Wednesday. The defendants maintained 71-year-old Leroy…

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday that two residents of Boulder County could not sue the county’s commissioners for walking back a policy originally banning firearm discharge on nearby land owned by the U.S. government. Boulder County leaders enacted a resolution in 2022 expanding the area near…

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save A federal judge on Thursday permitted firearm owners and two gun-rights organizations to proceed with their constitutional challenge to certain provisions of gun safety ordinances enacted by Boulder County and three of its municipalities. Rocky Mountain Gun Owners, the National Association for Gun Rights and…

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Colorado’s second-highest court reminded trial judges on Thursday that they must advise criminal defendants of their right to appear in person before imposing a sentence virtually. A Boulder County jury convicted Levi Valles in November 2022 of multiple offenses, but Valles experienced a severe medical…

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Colorado’s second-highest court reversed a defendant’s convictions out of Weld County last week, concluding the victim’s identification was unreliable and may have been the product of police influence. In August 2019, a teenage pizza delivery driver was leaving his job. Just after he closed the…