Tag: judge jaclyn casey brown
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Boulder County prosecutor improperly used defendant’s silence as guilt, appeals court finds
Colorado’s second-highest court reversed a Boulder County defendant’s sexual assault conviction last week after concluding that a trial judge should have intervened to stop the prosecutor from inappropriately using the man’s constitutional right to silence to suggest he was guilty. Prosecutors charged Charles G. Higdon III with two counts of sexual assault. Jurors acquitted him…
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Colorado justices, appeals judges speak of need to keep heads down amid political attacks
Two members of the Colorado Supreme Court and three Court of Appeals judges discussed their obligation on Tuesday to refrain from pushing back overtly on political attacks or misrepresentations of their work. Chief Justice Monica M. Márquez also disclosed certain strategies the judicial branch is employing to counter tangible threats to judges’ security. “My concern is…
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Colorado justices side with medical malpractice victim in calculating damages owed
The Colorado Supreme Court on Monday rejected a doctor’s argument that would have limited the amount of money a patient severely injured at birth would receive for his successful medical malpractice lawsuit two decades later. Under state law, damages in medical malpractice cases are generally capped at $1 million as part of a 1988 reform…
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Colorado justices weigh calculation of damages to victims of medical malpractice
Members of the Colorado Supreme Court considered on Tuesday whether a decades-old limitation on medical malpractice awards also creates an absolute restriction on the interest that injured plaintiffs can receive when they prevail at trial. The question affects the balance between fairly compensating people who suffer severe or lifelong injuries from medical negligence, on the…
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Appeals judge raises flag about whether insurance companies can collect restitution after traffic convictions
A member of Colorado’s second-highest court said on Thursday that she was skeptical insurance companies are entitled to collect crime victim restitution from defendants convicted of misdemeanor traffic offenses, but lawmakers had not provided clear direction one way or the other. A three-judge panel for the Court of Appeals agreed the evidence did not render…
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Appeals court divided over whether La Plata County judge’s illegal sentence is ‘salvageable’
Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday agreed a La Plata County judge imposed an illegal sentence, but remained divided about whether it should repair the problem itself. In the underlying case, Jacob Daniel John Jost pleaded guilty in 2023 to criminal mischief and received a sentence of two years’ probation. Later that year, he violated his…
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Colorado Supreme Court to decide whether to retreat on landmark restitution ruling
The Colorado Supreme Court will incorporate an unorthodox twist into its oral argument calendar this week, hearing five cases that all revolve around the same subject: Was the court serious when it said three years ago that judges who do not follow the law lose their authority to order criminal defendants to pay restitution? In…
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Lawyer who brought outside legal information into jury room triggers new sex assault trial
A man serving a potential life sentence for sexually assaulting a woman will receive a new trial after Colorado’s second-highest court agreed an attorney who served on the jury injected damaging, outside legal information into deliberations. In 2016, a jury convicted Damon D. Newman of raping a woman at gunpoint at Sloan’s Lake. Investigators linked Newman…
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Colorado justices narrowly uphold IP-based search warrant, decline to adopt broader rule
The Colorado Supreme Court upheld as constitutional on Monday a warrant that permitted Clear Creek County sheriff’s personnel to search a man’s laptop for child pornography, even though he lived in a unit separate from the target residence and law enforcement was focusing on a different suspect the day of the visit. Previously, four lower…
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Appeals court reverses first stalking conviction thanks to new SCOTUS requirement
Colorado’s second-highest court reversed a defendant’s stalking conviction last week for the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court decided in 2023 that prosecutors must prove a defendant had some understanding of the threatening nature of his speech. Last year, by 7-2, the Supreme Court handed down its ruling in Counterman v. Colorado, a case out…