James Warren Wilson

Jim Wilson, district attorney for the 22nd Judicial District in Montezuma and Dolores Counties, said he will not step down after his DUI arrest in Buena Vista last month, reports Steve Grazier of The Cortez Journal. Wilson will appear April 7 in Chaffee County Court for a formal advisement of five misdemeanor charges.

LAW WEEK PHOTO BY JAMIE COTTEN
Attorneys David Rigsby, left, and Jennifer Schlatter peer down from late artist Angelo di Benedetto’s mural, which, as of now, has no permanent home when the Colorado Judicial Building demolition begins May 3.

By Matt Masich, LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER — The crowning work of one of Colorado’s most important artists hides in plain sight in the heart of downtown Denver.
Motorists on 14th Avenue might miss it as they drive by, but pedestrians strolling in Civic Center Park sometimes take a detour to get a better view of the enormous mural that sprawls across the ceiling of the open-air first floor of the Colorado Judicial Building.
On any given day, a handful of curious passersby walk beneath the mural, gazing up at the dozens of historical figures that float on the mural’s vivid orange and yellow background. They pick out the more familiar faces — there’s Abraham Lincoln, there’s Martin Luther King — and then move on.
But to some people in Colorado’s arts community and legal profession, “Justice through the Ages” by late Central City artist Angelo di Benedetto is more than an interesting adornment on an otherwise gray government building; to them, it is a treasure.
“Angelo di Benedetto was a giant in Colorado art, and his mural at the court building is definitely one of the finest works of public art in the state,” said Michael Paglia, longtime Westword art critic and author of several books on Colorado artists.
“Angelo di Benedetto was probably among the best, or the best, figure painter in Colorado,” said Hugh Grant, director of the Kirkland Museum of Fine and Decorative arts. “We have quite a number of his paintings, and we have many, many figure drawings by him, some of which are just breathtaking.”
Di Benedetto was “Mr. Art” in Colorado during the mid-20th century, said Steve Savageau, who owns an art gallery in Denver. ”The mural was his masterpiece,” Savageau said.
The mural, also known as “Lawgivers,” will be on public view for just a few more months. The judicial building, the mural’s home for more than three decades, will be torn down this summer to make way for a new courts complex. The mural’s 74 panels are to be removed from their spot overlooking the skylight of the Supreme Court Law Library and be put in storage — artistic limbo.
It’s unknown when, where and in what form they will next be displayed. “All options are open” for the mural’s future, said Bill Mosher of Trammell Crow Co., which is managing construction of the new building.
These options include displaying the mural’s panels separately rather than as a whole mural.
“My obligation at this point in time is to document and secure and store these [panels] so that we leave the options open for their future disposition, whether it’s in the new building or somewhere else,” Mosher said.

Lawyers ‘looking skyward’
Attorney David Rigsby of Denver wants to make sure the mural is prominently displayed when the Supreme Court moves in 2013 to its new home in the Ralph L. Carr Judicial Complex, which is being designed by Denver’s Fentress Architects and will be built on the block now occupied by the judicial building and Colorado History Museum.
Rigsby is enlisting others to join him in encouraging the judicial branch to find a place for the mural inside the Carr complex, or failing that, to help find another suitable place for it. Joining him in the effort is Jennifer Schlatter, an intellectual property attorney with Allen & Vellone who has experience representing artists.
“My hope is not so much to apply legal analysis or legal pressure,” Rigsby said, “but to get some people involved who know their way around the system, to apply some knowhow into roping in people who care about the mural to do the right thing.”
Rigsby, general counsel with Lincoln Trust Co., has art and the law flowing through his veins. His father, also named David Rigsby, was an artist who founded the Evergreen Arts Center; his mother, Linda Palmieri, was a Jefferson County judge. He also has a personal connection to di Benedetto and the mural. Rigsby and his family were friends and neighbors of di Benedetto’s in Central City during the time he began work on the mural in 1976.
“Angelo didn’t paint the mural to be shown in a museum or gallery setting, but to be experienced in a public space where he knew people would be in deep contemplation,” Rigsby said.
“Lawyers rehearsing their oral arguments one last time while they paced beneath the building, law students cramming for the bar in the library, petitioners nearing the end of a long road — for over 30 years people have been looking skyward to calm their nerves, muster their strength, or catch their breath, and Angelo knew their gaze would be met with this.”

PHOTO COURTESY OF PHYLLIS MONTROSE
Angelo di Benedetto spent a year and a half painting the mural.

The artist
Though di Benedetto died in 1992, he has still has many friends and admirers who share Rigsby’s enthusiasm. Diminutive in physical stature, di Benedetto was a larger-than-life figure in Central City and the Denver art world.
Born in 1913 to Italian immigrant parents in Paterson, N.J., di Benedetto got his art degree from the Cooper Union School of Art in New York City and afterward trained at the School of the Museum of Fine Art in Boston. He joined the U.S. Army Air Corps (later the U.S. Air Force) before World War II, and served during that conflict in Haiti and Africa — an experience that spurred a lifelong abhorrence of war.
While in Africa, he met and befriended Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie. This was just one of the many luminaries with whom di Benedetto rubbed elbows: He chatted about reincarnation with Albert Einstein at Princeton, served as foreman on one of Diego Rivera’s murals in Mexico City, and used his own living room to host a performance by experimental composer John Cage.
Di Benedetto’s last stop in the Air Force was at Denver’s Buckley Field in 1946. He stayed in Colorado the rest of his life, heading to the mountains to transform a rundown Central City warehouse into a giant art studio. He was well-loved in his adopted hometown — “you walked down the street with him and everybody knew him,” Rigsby said —and was active in the community. He served as police magistrate in the 1950s and twice ran for mayor.
Di Benedetto was a prolific artist and teacher. He was highly regarded for his abstract paintings, figure drawings, sculpture and ceramics, which were exhibited in museums across the country. A number of his works are now on display at the Kirkland Museum’s downtown gallery and exhibition at the Arvada Center. His art was reproduced in two Life features, Newsweek, The New Yorker and National Geographic.
Di Benedetto was a strong proponent of public art. In 1968, he organized a group of nine artists to create sculptures for Denver’s Burns Park at Colorado Boulevard and Alameda Parkway, some of which are still standing. Former Gov. John Love appointed him to the Colorado Council on the Arts and Humanities and gave him an award for his contributions to the art and artists of Colorado.

PHOTO COURTESY OF PHYLLIS MONTROSE
Angelo di Benedetto was aided in the painting by chief assistant Phyllis Montrose and four others.

The mural — then
The mural at the judicial building was by far the largest work di Benedetto painted in his long career. At 20 feet by 150 feet, it was called at its debut “the largest figurative mural in America.”
It was paid for with a $100,000 gift to the judicial branch from retired Denver attorney Otto Friedrichs and his wife, Helen. The Supreme Court justices in 1976 selected di Benedetto from a field of 22 candidates to paint the mural for the judicial building then under construction.
The justices originally asked for a mural depicting the history of law in Colorado; di Benedetto persuaded them to expand the mural’s focus to include the great lawgivers from across the world. The artist and justices pitched ideas back and forth before settling on around 60 people — from ancient Babylonian King Hammurabi to former U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren — to enshrine in the painting. Di Benedetto placed “the spirit of the law” at the center of the mural: a bright geometric design that radiated warm color across the figures.
It took di Benedetto and five assistants 17½ months to paint the mural onto panels at his Central City studio. “Justice through the Ages” was dedicated amid fanfare on Columbus Day 1978.
“The mural is an idealistic concept of people of all races who have contributed to the growth and development of human rights and justice,” read the program at the dedication ceremony. “It is the hope of the artist that this painting will endure and give knowledge and pride to all races for their similar desires for justice and peace.”
Colorado artist Phyllis Montrose was di Benedetto’s chief assistant for the mural. Montrose, a surrealist painter whose works are displayed near di Benedetto’s in the Kirkland Museum, met him as a teenager in the 1940s when he was her teacher. In 1977-78, she drove from Denver to Central City to spend three days a week working on the mural.
It was a labor of love, Montrose said earlier this month. She was paid “$25 a day and lunch” consisting of “weak soup and a thin slice of rye bread.” At night she slept in a sleeping bag on the studio floor.
Di Benedetto drafted each figure and painted the faces, while Montrose and the assistants painted the flowing robes and other details. She remembers painting the curls of Hammurabi’s beard and spending days painting all the feet. The mural was “painted a quarter at a time,” she said, “and one-quarter of the mural filled up all the vertical space in the studio.”
The working conditions could be grueling.
“I developed a stooped squat [painting] all those draperies — up, down, up, down. It was wonderful for my legs,” she said.
Sometimes the justices would drop by to inspect their progress.
“They kept coming up in groups of three or four. Angelo was so funny. He said, ‘Michelangelo had the Pope, and I have the Supreme Court,’” Montrose said.
Di Benedetto’s dog would also prowl the studio.
“There I would be lying under the scaffolding in wads of dust and dog hair, with a large red setter who had gas. I’m painting feet, the dog is gassing me and the justices are hounding Angelo,” she remembered with a laugh.
The work was arduous, but Montrose said she was very pleased with the finished mural.
“If it ever got the public attention it deserves, it’s very important. It raises the masses; it honors them. It has heroes from all races in it,” she said. “I think it’s uplifting for downtrodden people to see themselves given dignity and honored.”

LAW WEEK PHOTO BY JAMIE COTTEN
Supreme Court library assistant Ginger Bilthuis sits in the library beneath the mural. The library closes April 5 and will reopen in smaller quarters in The Denver Post building on April 19. “I love this place. I’m a little bit sad, but you have to let go of the old horse and buggy.”

The mural — now
While di Benedetto hoped his mural would endure to inspire Coloradans, it is attached to a judicial building that Gov. Bill Ritter has called “outdated and obsolete from the day [it] opened.” The state historical society will help the judicial branch preserve the mural while the building is demolished, Mosher said.
“They are helping us with the archival process and the documentation and photography” of the mural panels, he said, but the historical society has declined an offer to acquire the mural.
The judicial branch will put the mural into storage while it works out a plan for its future display. The conceptual designs for the exterior of the new Carr judicial complex don’t include a place for the mural. Interior design of the Carr complex has not begun, Mosher said, leaving open the possibility it will be incorporated there. As the interior design comes together over the next six months, the branch will decide whether there’s a place for it inside the courts building.
But the size of the mural presents challenges. It’s 50 yards long in two parallel lines of 37 panels each, as it’s currently displayed, and would be 100 yards long if the 74 panels were laid out in one line.
“Currently there’s not a single space where the entire mural could be displayed as it is today,” said Fred Schultz of Trammell Crow, who works with Mosher in planning the Carr complex. “We don’t have anything that big or that long, so they would be somehow dispersed throughout the facility if we can find places for it. The best thing would be to find a benefactor or a destination that this thing could be set up in the way it’s intended now, but we haven’t found a home for it.”
Montrose agrees it would be best to display the mural as originally intended. Separating the panels would be a “terrible idea,” she said.
“You can’t break up a cohesive work,” Montrose said. “That would make it into a historical artifact.”
Savageau, who bought most of di Benedetto’s estate, elaborated on that idea.
“Breaking them down into panels — this is not an Enstrom candy. This has a unified structure,” Savageau said. “The whole idea was the spirit of the law in the center of the painting and then the relationship of the spirit of the law to the various adherents to it.”
If the mural can’t be displayed in its entirety at the Carr complex, those who knew di Benedetto said, the next best thing would be to move the whole mural to another place where law touches people’s lives, like a courthouse, law library or law school in Colorado. But to the mural’s fans, that is a fallback.
“I think the approach that best recognizes the historic importance of the mural to Colorado and the law would be to find a way to incorporate the mural into the Ralph Carr justice center,” Rigsby said.

John Baker, Lucy Marsh and Fay Matsukage are this year’s honorees.

The University of Denver Sturm College of Law announced the alumni and faculty who will be named “Law Stars” at an annual gala event at the Hyatt Convention Center on Sept. 16. The winners are:

John T. Baker, JD’73, Alumni Professionalism Award:
In addition to a host of accomplishments in the courtroom, Baker has been a dedicated member of the Denver community. He has been president of the Denver Bar Association and led numerous Colorado professional associations, led the Colorado Supreme Court Judicial Advisory Council and was president of the board of directors for Denver Kids, dedicated to at-risk students. Professionally, he continues his career in complex product liability cases involving pharmaceuticals and vehicles, and has served as an adjunct professor of law at DU.

Lucy Marsh, Excellence in Teaching Award:
Marsh, who teaches trusts and estates and civil procedure, has been teaching at the Sturm College of Law (SCOL) since 1973. In addition to directing the Wills Lab, a practicum where law students work with practicing attorneys to provide services to low-income clients, Marsh has led professional organizations, including service on the Board of Governors of the Colorado Bar Association.

Fay Matsukage, JD’79, Outstanding Alumni Award:
Upon passing the bar exam in 1980, Matsukage became one of the first Asian-American women attorneys admitted to practice in Colorado. She soon found a niche in corporate and securities law and is currently a partner at the Denver firm Dill Dill Carr Stonbraker & Hutchings. She is a founding member of the Asian Pacific Bar Association of Colorado and has served many professional organizations in leadership roles. In 1999 she accepted the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s Trailblazer Award.

Catherine Smith

The University of Denver Sturm College of Law has appointed Professor Catherine Smith to the newly created post of associate dean of institutional diversity and inclusiveness.
The school believes this is one of the first, if not the first, such tenure-track posts at a U.S. law school.
Smith said her new role will include recruiting a broad range of both faculty and students and reaching into traditionally under-served segments of the community.
“Catherine is one of the most energetic and innovative people I have met,” said DU Law Dean Martin Katz said in a statement. “She is dedicated to inclusiveness in the truest sense: She works tirelessly in pursuit of this goal. She is a unifier, always focusing on the possible and on the positive.”
A graduate of the University of South Carolina School of Law, Smith was an assistant professor at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University from 2000 to 2004 before coming to DU to teach torts and employment discrimination.
Smith said she plans to work with groups that have ties to minority communities with a goal of building a legal community that reflects Colorado’s diverse population.
“Catherine has a seemingly endless supply of good ideas. Having someone focused on these projects for the long haul is particularly important to their success. I am excited to work with her on these projects,” Katz said. “Given the Sturm College of Law’s commitment to diversity and inclusiveness, it is particularly appropriate for us to do this here. We have the opportunity to be a national leader in this area.”

Transaction attorneys Jacqueline Benson and William “Bo” Anderson were appointed partners at Denver firm Moye White.
In addition to her primary role as a business and transactional lawyer, Benson also has experience in securities. She is also on the board of directors of Sportwomen of Colorado and a volunteer with Golden Retriever Rescue of the Rockies.
Anderson focuses on real estate and taxation. He has a wife and two children.

Bankruptcy attorney J. Brian Fletcher was recently named a member of Denver firm Onsager Staelin & Guyerson.
The six-lawyer firm focuses on general business, civil litigation and bankruptcy.

James Warren Wilson

The 22nd Judicial District’s top law enforcement official was arrested in February for driving under the influence of alcohol and faces a myriad of criminal charges, The Cortez Journal reports. District Attorney James Warren Wilson was pulled over about 10:15 a.m. Feb. 21 for making an unsafe pass of another vehicle along Colorado Highway 24 near Buena Vista, according to Sgt. John Hahn, public information officer for the Colorado State Patrol’s headquarters in Denver. Wilson was driving a 2009 Jeep utility vehicle and heading west.

By Matt Masich, LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER — Starting in May, digital recordings of oral arguments before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will be available to all who request them, the court ordered Friday. Oral arguments have been recorded for years, but recordings were for court use only. “This new general order basically turns that on its head,” said Clerk of Court Elisabeth Shumacher. Those who would like a copy of an oral argument will file a motion with court, which will send the recording via e-mail as an MP3 attachment. The change in the local rules is provisional, Shumacher said, but is expected to be made permanent next year. Several other U.S. circuits allow public access to recordings; some charge a fee and some post them online. The 10th Circuit has ruled that recordings will be available for free, but by request only.
Read the order here:
order95-1

The long-running Roadless Rule case will be argued Wednesday before the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, reports Bob Berwyn of the Summit Voice. The U.S. Forest Service established the rule in 2001 to forbid construction of new roads on 58 million acres of federal land. The rule was applauded by environmental groups but criticized by the mining and logging industries. The State of Wyoming and mining groups successfully challenged the Roadless Rule in Wyoming federal court, prompting U.S. Judge Clarence Brimmer to enjoin enforcement of the rule in 2008. The U.S. Department of Agriculture, supported by environmental group EarthJustice, are appealing that decision.
A three-judge panel composed of Judges Stephen Anderson, Jerome Holmes and Michael Murphy will decide the case. Immediately before hearing oral arguments in the Roadless Rule case, the same panel will hear arguments in the appeal of the Rocky Flats class-action lawsuit. Two defense contractors are appealing a judgment ordering them to pay nearly a billion dollars in damages. A jury in the Colorado federal court in 2006 found that radioactive pollution released by the former Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant lowered property values for more than 12,000 nearby property-owners.

By Matt Masich, LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER — Al Meiklejohn, former Republican state senator and attorney with Jones & Keller, died last week at age 86. The Colorado Senate unanimously passed a memorial Monday honoring him for reaching across party lines to improve education and transportation in the state. Current and former senators shared their memories of Meiklejohn, who represented Arvada in the Senate from 1976 to 1996.
–Sen. Evie Hudak, D-Westminster, said “it’s rather ironic that it should be me up here sponsoring this memorial.” Hudak ran against the “wildly popular” Meiklejohn in 1992, losing the election 62 percent to 38 percent. Even some of Hudak’s friends confessed they supported Meiklejohn, she said. Hudak herself was “thankful that I had lost the election” when she saw what a strong advocate for education her former opponent was in the legislature. When Hudak called Meiklejohn to congratulate him on his election victory, he encouraged her to stay involved in politics. She took the advice to heart and won election to the Senate in 2008.
–Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, said his father, former Gov. Roy Romer, called Meiklejohn “someone who never let party affiliation get in the way of what was right for Colorado and what was right for kids.” Romer praised Meiklejohn’s two decades of service, and suggested he should have been allowed more. “Al Meiklejohn certainly stands for one of the best arguments ever for why term limits should not be put in place,” Romer said.
–Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, called Meiklejohn “a giant in the legislature on education issues,” and said he was a champion of school choice and home schooling.
–Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial, said that when she was a school board member rather than a legislator, she would be “in awe” of Meiklejohn when she came before the Senate Education Committee to testify. Spence, along with several others who spoke, also remembered the prodigious number of cigarettes Meiklejohn smoked on the Senate floor and in committees, back in the old days.
–Sen. Moe Keller, D-Wheat Ridge, served with him on a higher education committee in the early 1990s when she was in the House. By that time, he had apparently replaced his smoking habit: “He would bring a bowl of candy to the meeting,” Keller said. “They were jolly ranchers. He would nervously fiddle with them and he’d unwrap one, and eat another — I never saw any one eat as much candy in an hour and a half.” On a more serious note, she called his leadership “unparalleled,” and added that “his memory is still mentoring.”
–Former Sen. Dottie Wham, a former colleague of Meiklejohn, joked that “he was one of the few lawyers that I trusted. He was a straight shooter” even if “you didn’t always like where he aimed.” When Wham spoke with Meiklejohn not long before he died, he gave her words of encouragement: “Don’t let the bastards get you down,” and “Give ‘em hell.
–Former Senate President Tom Norton, who served with Meiklejohn, said he absolutely hated the rare occasions when they disagreed on an issue. “He was a master of debate and I was an engineer,” he said.
–Former Sen. Norma Anderson worked closely with Meiklejohn on education issues. She recalls he would often “pound the table and say if we [don’t] have children learn to read by third grade, they will fail.’ He said it so many times. I finally said, ‘Senator, it’s time we carried a bill. We’re going to mandate that children learn by third grade or they’re not going on to fourth.’” She added, “Sen. Meiklejohn first and foremost fought for the children of this state.”
–Former Sen. Sue Windels remembered writing a letter education to Meiklejohn before she was a legislator. She was amazed when he called her to talk about it. Meiklejohn supported Windels when she ran for the legislature, even though they were from different parties. “If we could clone Al Meiklejohn and have 100 Al Meiklejohns, I’m sure we could solve so many problems in the this state — and have a lot of fun while doing it,” Windels said.