LAW WEEK COLORADO

The active of typing on a laptop computer is so disruptive that 4th District Judge Deborah Grohs rejected a request from a newspaper to blog live during a first-degree murder trial.

Colorado Springs Gazette courts reporter John Ensslin reported Tuesday that Grohs’ denial is the first he’s had in his 17-month tenure covering the district, which covers El Paso and Teller counties.

As Ensslin reported:

I had hopes of live blogging from the first-degree murder trial of Derek Lee Hernandez this week. Alas, it is not to be. …

I had requested to have a photographer in the courtroom and also asked if I could bring my laptop computer in order to file periodic reports on the trial. …

“Typing on a key board in the courtroom, whether it is on a laptop computer or a cell phone is prohibited,” Grohs wrote in a one-page ruling. “The act of typing is disruptive and takes away from the dignity of the court proceedings.”

Ensslin also reports that he’ll still blog during the trial, but it won’t be live from the courtroom.

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LAW WEEK COLORADO

DENVER — A hearing board on Tuesday dismissed a complaint brought the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel against 18th Judicial District Magistrate Patrick D. Butler. The order to dismiss was a rare occurrence; attorney regulation cases that reach a hearing usually result in a sanction of some kind.

Regulation counsel accused Butler of violating the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct by answering “no” to a question on a 20th Judicial District judgeship application in 2009 that asked if he had ever been professionally disciplined, when in fact he had received a private admonition for an undisclosed incident in 2004. When the discrepancy between his application and disciplinary record was pointed out, Butler said he did not recall getting the admonition and thought he had avoided sanction by taking an ethics class. Regulation counsel said Butler was reckless not to double-check whether he had been sanctioned.

The case went to hearing on June 22 before a three-person hearing board, headed by Presiding Disciplinary Judge William Lucero and also including attorneys Maureen Cain and David Herrera. Butler was represented by Craig Truman; the attorney for the regulation office was Charles Mortimer.

On Tuesday, Lucero’s office issued the order to dismiss, which reads in part:

“The Hearing Board concludes that Respondent’s inaccurate response to the query, while unseemly and inept, was not the product of an intentional effort to mislead the Judicial Nominating Commission. Nor does the evidence clearly or convincingly evince a reckless disregard for the truth such that we can find it deceitful or dishonest. Accordingly, the Hearing Board dismisses the People’s complaint.”

Butler, who has been an 18th Judicial District magistrate since April 2009, spent the previous two decades with the law firm Lamm & Butler. The 20th Judicial District judgeship that he applied for eventually went to Thomas Mulvahill.

Patrick D. Butler

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LAW WEEK COLORADO

Robert Walter Kiesnowski Jr., Cynthia J. Kowert and Ted C. Tow III are finalists for the 17th Judicial District Court judgeship being vacated by the Hon. John T. Bryan, who is retiring.

The finalists were selected by the 17th Judicial District Nominating Commission.

Gov. Bill Ritter’s office provided brief biographies of each of the nominees. They are published below. Under Colorado’s judicial merit-selection system, Ritter has 15 days to appoint one to the position.

Robert Walter Kiesnowski, Jr. of Commerce City currently works as in-house counsel for the Denver Police Protective Association and is “of counsel” to Worstell & Kiesnowski. Mr. Kiesnowski was also in private practice where he practiced criminal defense primarily as alternate defense counsel. Mr. Kiesnowski earned his B.S. and B.A. from Regis College (1987) and his J.D. from the University of Puget Sound School of Law, n/k/a Seattle University School of Law (1989).

Cynthia J. Kowert of Brighton currently works as a Chief Trial Deputy in the District Attorney’s Office for the 17th Judicial District where she is currently the Chief of the Child Victim Unit and the Juvenile Unit. Ms. Kowert was in private practice after passing the Colorado Bar in Ft. Collins for approximately a year and a half before joining the District Attorney’s Office. Ms. Kowert earned her B.S. from Texas Woman’s University (1982) and her J.D. from the University of Denver College of Law (1989).

Ted C. Tow III of Northglenn is currently the Executive Director of the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council providing centralized prosecution-related services to the member District Attorneys of Colorado. Prior to this position Mr. Tow served as a Deputy District Attorney in the 17th Judicial District, a civil litigator and as a manager in the corporate sector. Mr. Tow earned his B.A. from the University of Kansas (1989) and his J.D. from Wayne State University Law School. (1994).

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LAW WEEK COLORADO

Joseph Ross Kirwan III of Edwards and Jonathan Bruce Pototsky of Glenwood Springs are finalists for an associate county court judgeship. One of the two will succeed the Hon. Jason Jovanovich, who decided against standing for voter retention in November.

Kirwan is a private-practice attorney in the Law Offices of Thomas Silverman in Glenwood Springs, according to Colorado Supreme Court records. Pototsky is a deputy district attorney in the 9th Judicial District, according to his LinkedIn profile.

The 9th Judicial District Nominating Commission selected the finalists at a meeting Monday in the Garfield Combined Courthouse.

Under Colorado’s judicial merit-selection system, Gov. Bill Ritter has until Sept. 15 to make the final selection. Comments regarding any of the nominees may be sent via e-mail to the governor at judicial.appointments@state.co.us

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LAW WEEK COLORADO

Gov. Bill Ritter continues his pattern of giving lower-court judges greater court responsibility.

He has appointed three new judges – two district court judges in the 4th Judicial District and one county court judge in Douglas County. Two of the judges are current magistrates; the third is a private-practice attorney.

· Lawrence R. Bowling of Castle Rock succeeds retiring Douglas County Judge Michelle Marker effective Jan. 1.

· Timothy J. Schutz of Monument succeeds retiring District Court Judge J. Patrick Kelly in the 4th Judicial District effective Oct. 31.

· Barbara L. Hughes of Colorado Springs succeeds retiring District Court Judge Timothy Simmons in the 4th Judicial District effective Dec. 31. The 4th Judicial District serves El Paso and Teller counties.

Bowling is currently a magistrate in Douglas County and has served as a magistrate in the 18th Judicial District – which covers Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties – since 2006. Prior to that, he was an assistant county attorney in Jefferson County, an associate with Quade, Fontana and Bonin, and a deputy district attorney in the 18th Judicial District. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Colorado Technical College in 1981 and his law degree from the University of Denver in 1993.

Schutz is a founding member of the firm Hanes & Schutz, which was formed in 1992. Before that, he was an associate with Holland & Hart. He received his bachelor’s degree from Moorhead State University in 1984 and his law degree from the University of North Dakota in 1987.

Hughes has served as a district court magistrate in the 4th Judicial District’s Probate Division since 2000. Prior to that, she was an attorney with Colorado Legal Services in Colorado Springs, an attorney with Pikes Peak Legal Services in Colorado Springs, a law clerk in the 4th Judicial District and an attorney with Zuckerman and Kleinman. She earned her bachelor’s degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania in 1980 and her law degree from the University of Colorado in 1988.

For a county court judge, the initial term of office is a provisional term of two years. Thereafter, if retained by the voters, county court judges serve four-year terms at an annual salary of $123,067.

For a district court judge, the initial term of office is a provisional term of two years. Thereafter, if retained by the voters, district court judges serve six-year terms at an annual salary of $128,598.

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LAW WEEK COLORADO

Colorado Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey on Monday appointed 22nd Judicial District Court Judge Douglas S. Walker as the district’s chief judge, effective Oct. 1. The district covers Montezuma and Dolores counties.

Walker succeeds Chief Judge Sharon L. Hansen, who was appointed to the bench April 1, 1986, and has served as the chief judge since 1995. Walker is the only other district judge in the 22nd; another is expected to appointed soon by Gov. Bill Ritter.

“I would like to thank Chief Judge Hansen for her years of dedication to serving the people of the Twenty-Second Judicial District,” Mullarkey said in a statement. “I am certain Judge Walker will follow in Judge Hansen’s footsteps by providing solid, effective leadership for court operations in southwestern Colorado.”

Chief judges serve as their districts’ administrative heads. They are responsible for appointing the district administrator, chief probation officer and clerks of the court. They also assist in the personnel, financial and case management duties of the district.

Walker was appointed to the district bench in July 2007. Before his appointment, he served as a district and county court magistrate for 10 years in the 22nd and 6th judicial districts. Prior to his judicial service, he was in private practice for 20 years, 13 of which included serving as the prosecutor in the Southern Ute Indian Tribal Court.

The judge was the subject of a Law Week Colorado news story for ordering a convicted murderer to his sentencing against his wishes. Ignacio Rael was shocked twice with a Taser and forcibly extracted from his cell. Neither Mullarkey nor the Colorado Judicial Branch has publicly commented on Walker’s order except to say that the branch supported the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Department, which carried out the Tasering. The sheriff has said he didn’t see the need for Rael, who missed much of his trial, to appear at the sentencing.

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Source: CSPAN

LAW WEEK COLORADO

Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday in Colorado Springs read a funny and heart-warming speech written by her late husband, tax attorney Martin Ginsburg.

The occasion for the speech, presented above, was the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ biennial bench/bar conference at the Broadmoor Resort. Martin Ginsburg had agreed to give the speech, but he died in June.

Martin Ginsburg’s speech recounted how an obscure 10th Circuit tax case, which the Ginsburgs handled pro bono, led to a Supreme Court appearance for his wife and to a host of other gender-discrimination cases. The case involved a contested tax deduction involving a Mr. Morris that would have been allowable had Morris been a single woman. He was a single man.

The Morris case, which was handled under the auspices of the American Civil Liberties Union, led to Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s being retained to handled the much-larger discrimination case of Reed v. Reed before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the government appealed an unfavorable 10th Circuit verdict it got in the Morris case, attaching a mainframe-generated list of hundreds of other statutes that would be similarly affected. The nation’s high court denied cert, and the future Justice Ginsburg used the list to successfully challenge the statutes in other courts.

The outcomes were “all in all great achievements from a tax case with an amount in controversy that totaled exactly $296.70,” Martin Ginsburg wrote in his speech. “As you can see in bringing those tax court advance sheets to Ruth’s big room [her office] 40 years ago, I changed history for the better and I shall claim I rendered a significant service to the nation.”

Justice Ginsburg was composed throughout the speech but concluded with a tear in her eye. The audience gave her a standing ovation.

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LAW WEEK COLORADO

The Colorado Hispanic Bar Association’s Nominations and Endorsement Committee on Monday requested regarding Colorado Supreme Court nominees Monica Marquez, David Prince and Robert Russel.

Please send your comments to Diego Hunt at dghunt@hollandhart.com by 5 p.m. Tuesday.

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LAW WEEK COLORADO

DENVER – Gov. Bill Ritter appointed 7th Judicial District assistant district attorney Jerry Joe Montgomery to the Montrose County bench.

Montgomery replaces Judge John Mitchel, who will step down Jan. 11. Other finalists in line for the appointment with Montgomery were fellow prosecutors Anna Cooling and Seth Ryan. All three were the only applicants, a spokesman for the state judicial branch confirmed to Law Week. The annual salary for a county court judge is $123,067.

Prior to becoming a prosecutor in Montrose, Montgomery was also a public defender in Missouri, an in-house tax attorney with Broomfield-based Omni Financial and president of Monument-based nonprofit Touch the World Foundation. He received his juris doctor from the University of Washington in Missouri.

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By Ali McNally, LAW WEEK COLORADO

DENVER – Hundreds crammed in and around the University of Denver Sturm College of Law forum as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor answered questions about her life in law school, as a corporate attorney, her journey through the bench and as a minority.

“I think it was really cool for Sotomayor to come to Colorado and answer our questions because not many people get the opportunity to ask them,” said Jessica Keys, a 17-year-old senior at Manual High School who got first crack at the Q & A session.

Keys asked Sotomayor whether her race and upbringing in the Bronx suburb of Manhattan made her feel out of place at Princeton, where the justice received her undergraduate degree.

“I’m on the Supreme Court of the United States and I’m one of nine extraordinary people. Every morning I get up and I wonder, am I really here? Do I really belong? It takes a long time for that feeling to go away,” Sotomayor said. “Even if I’m a little bit different, it’s okay, and I guess that’s where I am now. It’s okay.”

Sotomayor was invited to speak by DU and the Colorado Campaign for Inclusive Excellence, a Denver-based nonprofit focused on diversity in the legal profession.

Editor’s Note: Read a full account of the Sotomayor session, including her comments on her obstacles as a private practice attorney in New York, in the Aug. 30 print edition of Law Week.

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