Author: Michael Karlik
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Colorado Supreme Court rejects ‘personhood’ for elephants at Colorado Springs’ Cheyenne Mountain Zoo
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save The Colorado Supreme Court followed in the footsteps of its counterparts on Tuesday and rejected the idea that an animal rights organization could petition for the release of five captive elephants in Colorado Springs. The Washington, D.C.-based Nonhuman Rights Project has unsuccessfully filed suit in multiple…
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Appeals court rules Denver ordinance’s constitutionality has no bearing on lawfulness of arrest
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Colorado’s second-highest court ruled on Thursday that regardless of whether a plaintiff could later show Denver’s ordinance was unconstitutional, arresting officers were acting with probable cause at the time and could not be held liable. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals pointed to…
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Appeals court clarifies no relief available for delay in providing judicial records
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Colorado’s second-highest court clarified on Thursday that relief is only available when the judiciary denies access to certain public records, with no consequence if the records are simply delayed. Although the Colorado Open Records Act is the state’s primary disclosure law, administrative records from the…
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Appeals court orders new Weld County murder trial after judge refused to give self-defense instruction
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday decided a Weld County judge should have instructed jurors to consider whether a man accused of murder acted in self-defense, given that some evidence at the crime scene supported that theory. Jurors convicted Kenneth James Hoschouer III in 2021 of murdering…
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Lawmakers consider judiciary’s budget request, appellate judges raise anti-SLAPP concerns | COURT CRAWL
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. State lawmakers looked skeptically at the Judicial Department’s budget request for the next year, and two appellate judges aired their complaints about how their court has interpreted Colorado’s free speech-protection…
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Colorado Springs officers to face civil trial for luring man out of home, chasing him inside prior to death
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save A federal judge has ruled that a jury will decide whether four Colorado Springs police officers violated a man’s constitutional rights by chasing him inside his home without a warrant and restraining him as he lay on the floor dying. Chad Alexander Burnett was mentally…
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2 appeals judges warn of diverging interpretations to Colorado’s free speech protection law
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Two members of Colorado’s second-highest court warned in separate cases on Thursday that they believe judges are drifting away from the legislature’s directive to evaluate whether defamation lawsuits should be dismissed under a 2019 law designed to protect free speech. More than two years ago,…
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Defamation suit may proceed against conservative radio outlet, talk show host: appeals court
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save A former executive of Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems may proceed with his defamation lawsuit against the owner of a conservative talk radio station and one of its hosts, Colorado’s second-highest court ruled . The latest in a string of recent decisions favoring plaintiff Eric Coomer, a…
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Montezuma County man’s drug conviction overturned because prosecution presented skewed narrative
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Colorado’s second-highest court last week overturned a Montezuma County man’s drug conviction after concluding a judge allowed the prosecution to present a misleading version of what happened during the defendant’s arrest. At the 2022 trial of Ramon Alberto Dejesus III, jurors saw a series of largely…
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Mesa County judge wrongly ordered murder defendant to pay $3,600 for DNA testing, says appeals court
Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save A Mesa County judge improperly ordered a defendant to pay nearly $3,600 for DNA testing in his homicide prosecution without a legal basis for doing so, Colorado’s second-highest court ruled last month. Richard Alan VanderVelde pleaded guilty in 2023 to second-degree murder and related offenses…