By Matt Masich, LAW WEEK COLORADO
Bill Martinez, nominated last month to one of two open judgeships on Colorado’s federal trial court, appeared before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee last week in Washington, D.C. The committee didn’t vote on his nomination. Martinez needs approval from the committee and the full Senate before he can be sworn in as a judge.
Colorado’s Sens. Michael Bennet and Mark Udall gave Martinez glowing introductions.
“Bill was not born with great privilege,” Udall said. “He came to the United States as an immigrant child from Mexico City and literally worked his way through college and toward a career in the law.
As a lawyer, Udall said, Martinez’ “focus has really been representing those with the least amount of power in our society.”
The committee’s ranking member, Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, gave Martinez a perfunctory grilling about his work with the ACLU of Colorado. Sessions, who’s often at odds with the ACLU, asked whether Martinez agrees with the organization’s stance that capital punishment is “cruel and unusual.” [Watch it on video here, starting at 83:00]
“What I would agree with as a district judge,” Martinez replied, “is that the U.S. Supreme Cout has ruled that capital punishment doesn’t violate the Eighth Amendment, except in narrow circumstances that have been carved out in recent years. So I think what is material and important is what my view would be as a sitting federal district judge, something that would be quite different from my views as a personal citizen or an advocate or litigant and member of the ACLU.”
Sessions pressed the issue, asking Martinez to share his personal view on whether capital punishment is unconstitutional. Martinez said he thinks “that day may come” when U.S. Supreme Court outlaws the death penalty, but that as a judge, he will follow the current interpretation. He also said he would not have a problem imposing the death penalty in court.
Martinez, a labor lawyer with McNamara Roseman Martinez & Kazmierski in Denver, brought a cheering section with him to Washington, including wife Judy Shlay; daughters Erica and Laura; parents Guillermo and Mary Martinez; and brothers Salvador Martinez and Al Martinez.

Law Week Photo by Jamie Cotten
Judicial Department technology chief Bob Roper and State Court Administrator Jerry Marroney spoke after the hearing.

By Allie Winter, LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER — A Colorado House panel had many questions last week for Colorado’s Judicial Department about its plan to bring the state’s courts e-filing system in house.
After fighting to get its outsourced services in house, the department already has won a victory. When its contract with Lexis Nexis, the vendor currently handling the state’s public access and e-filing systems, ends this summer, the department has been approved to bring the public access system in house. Now, it wants the same approval for e-filing when Lexis’ contract for operating that system expires at the end of 2012. At last week’s hearing, officials plead their case and their abilities.
“I understand many people think this will work, but what if it doesn’t?” asked Rep. Joe Rice, D-Littleton, chair of the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee.
A big concern at the hearing was that judicial employees won’t be able to operate the system successfully, as some government systems have failed in the past. But Rep. Mike Ferrandino, D-Denver, assured the panel that the department could handle the task.
“When you look at judicial, every time they have implemented a system, the system has worked,” he said.
Another testifier, State Court Administrator Jerry Marroney, listed many programs and systems that the department has successfully launched.
“I know there’s been talk about failure,” he said. “We run probation, 90,000 people, all through an in-house system that we developed. It has 10,000 transactions a day.”
After listing a few more examples, Marroney said that not only is the department able to do this, it needs to; the system as currently constructed doesn’t do everything the department needs. Currently, the system includes only civil probate, domestic, water and county court collection filings, Marroney said.The department needs it to include criminal, mental health, juvenile and other filings and that would be possible if the department took over.
“We need it to do a lot more,” Marroney continued. “We need it because it’s our business to run the courts.”
But bringing it in house means hiring more people to help. Judicial has proposed hiring 19 information-technology employees to operate the e-filing system. This becomes a hot button for legislators, especially in light of the department’s previous request to cut 266 full-time equivalent positions in the next year. And more recently, the department has also requested permission to cut positions from its probation department.
“When people think of the judicial system, we think of judges and so forth; and the IT section is not the primary role of judicial,” said Rep. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs. “So, on one hand, you’re cutting 266 legitimate judicial employees and on the other hand, you’re bringing in 19 IT positions. I think we’re all a little bit weary, [especially with the] glowing report of what the outside vendors have done, and now we’re cutting them loose.”
Ferrandino answered saying that just because something has been outsourced doesn’t mean it needs to continue that way. Ferrandino, a member of the Joint Budget Committee, said the JBC prioritized the judicial budget request and felt it was essential to get these 19 FTEs.
“[Judicial] needs judges, but if they don’t have the system they need to function then they’re not going to be able to do their jobs and so by bringing on a system that allows them to do their jobs in a better way saves the state money,” Ferrandino said.
Marroney said the department has estimated a need for $2.6 million to fund the 19 FTE it wants to bring on. But, he also said the department will produce that money from the public access system by the end of 2012 — when it’s time to bring e-filing on board. The judicial department was given permission to run the public access system in house during the session, and it has been busy preparing it, testing it and bringing 12,000 government users onto the system before it is even turned on.
“If it doesn’t work, we’ll go back,” Marroney said. “There’s nothing preventing us from reissuing an RFP.” But should it face problems, Marroney said if it’s in house, at least he can deal with problems directly.
“I’m being held responsible, and I don’t have any authority. When you chew me out about something not working I can do something about it; right now I can’t. I have a vendor to go through, and I have to fit in their mold. I want to be able to walk in and chew [an employee’s] back side if they’re not producing.”
Should the department receive its wish and win approval to operate the e-filing, Marroney said Lexis Nexis will still be a vendor and buy the information, as secondary vendors BIS and Acxiom do now. He said those contracts are being negotiated.

Robert S. Hyatt

LAW WEEK COLORADO
Robert S. Hyatt is the new chief judge for the 2nd Judicial District, Denver. He succeeds Larry J. Naves, who is leaving the court to take a position with Denver’s Judicial Arbiter Group.
Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey announced Hyatt’s selection today. It’s effective April 1.
“Chief Judge Naves’ contributions to the judiciary during the past 23 years have not gone unnoticed; he has served the people of Denver and of Colorado well and he will be missed,” Mullarkey said in a statement. “I look forward to working with Judge Hyatt in this new role and am confident he will be a strong, effective leader for the Second Judicial District.”
Hyatt was appointed to the district court bench in November 1987 after serving for three years on the Denver County Court bench. Before that, he served in the Colorado attorney general’s office and was in private practice. He received his undergraduate degree in English from St. Louis University and his law degree from the University of Missouri law school in 1977.
As chief judge, Hyatt will serve as the administrative head of the District Court; juvenile and probate courts in Denver are separate and have their own chief judges. He will be responsible for appointing the district administrator, chief probation officer and clerk of the court, to assist in personnel, financial and case management matters along with seeing that court business is conducted efficiently.

LAW WEEK COLORADO
The Hispanic National Bar Association supports President Obama’s nomination of William J. “Bill” Martinez for the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. The association noted Martinez’ lengthy qualifications and proven record of public service. They also praised nominee Wifredo A. Ferrer, who is up for U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida.
“Both Mr. Martinez and Mr. Ferrer are exemplary attorneys who have excelled in the legal profession throughout their careers.  Their extensive legal experience has qualified and prepared them to serve with distinction, ” said Roman Hernandez, the association’s president.
Damian Arguello, new president of the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association also today cited his excitement about Martinez’ nomination.
Martinez previously said he could not comment on the nomination until everything is finalized, but did say he’s very honored.

William J. Martinez

By Allie Winter and Matt Masich, LAW WEEK COLORADO
President Barack Obama today nominated Denver labor lawyer William Martinez for one of two open judgeships on the seven-seat U.S. District Court for Colorado. Martinez must face a confirmation hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.
Martinez was born Jose Guillermo Martinez Escalante in Mexico City. According to a questionnaire required of all judge nominees and published below, he changed it to William Joseph Martinez in 1974. He attended the University of Chicago Law School and after leaving Illinois, Martinez worked at many places including Denver law firm Pendleton Friedberg Wilson & Hennessey and at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Denver office. He’s also been an adjunct professor at the University of Denver College of Law since 1992, worked as a sole practitioner at the Law Office of William J. Martinez and is currently a partner at McNamara & Martinez, which, in 2007, expanded to McNamara Roseman Martinez & Kazmierski.
Martinez has been named a Colorado Super Lawyer twice, a fellow in the Colorado Bar Association and one of the Best Lawyers in America. He was president of the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association in 2008 and has had many writings published in publications such as the Journal of the National Employment Lawyers Association and the Journal of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America.
Martinez’s full questionnaire is published here:

WilliamMartinez-PublicQuestionnaire

Douglas Walker

By Allie Winter, LAW WEEK COLORADO
Montezuma County District Judge Douglas Walker has declined to comment on defendant convicted murderer Ignacio Rael’s being jolted twice with a Taser gun to get him to Walker’s courtroom.
The tasing came after Walker ordered law enforcement to use “any force necessary” to get convicted murder Ignacio Rael to show up for his sentencing hearing, The Cortez Journal has reported. Walker, who received a lengthy prison term, did not attend his trial.
Real’s lawyer, public defender Tom Williamson, said his client was “tasered several times” when he told deputies that he didn’t want to attend the hearing.
Cortez Journal reporter Steve Grazier told Law Week Colorado that law enforcement “rolled Rael in” on a chair to which he was restrained. “His legs were restrained and I could see something around his chest,” Grazier said.
The Judicial Branch, through spokesman Rob McCallum, also had no comment on the tasing, but the branch said it placed “a high value on its relationship with law enforcement and places its trust in those officials to decide what course of action is necessary in any given situation.”

By Matt Masich, LAW WEEK COLORADO
DENVER — Ignacio “Michael” Ray Rael, convicted of murdering his ex-girlfriend, didn’t attend his own trial in Montezuma County District Court in Cortez. Rael didn’t want to attend his sentencing either, but Judge Douglas Walker instructed sheriff’s deputies to “use any force necessary” to get him into court. He was tasered at Montezuma County Jail, according to public defender Tom Williamson, and tied to a restraint chair at his sentencing, the Cortez Journal reports.
Law Week Colorado contacted Colorado’s State Public Defender Doug Wilson for comment via e-mail, and asked whether it’s common practice to restrain defendants as Rael was.
“I have not been able to talk with my attorneys yet, but the conduct by the judge and the sheriff was outrageous,” Wilson responded. “No, this does not happen and should never happen anywhere in this country. The court has the right, as a last resort, to ban a disruptive client from the courtroom, but not to order that anyone ever be tortured, bound and gagged in a restraint chair.”

District Court Judge Larry J. Naves, who has been Denver’s chief judge for four years, has notified colleagues that he plans to leave the bench before April, when he will be joining the Judicial Arbiter Group, The Denver Post reports.

The Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management sent all federal trial judges suggested jury instructions address increasing juror use of Smartphones and computers to research information about their cases. The instructions also addresses the use of social media sites like Facebook and Twitter during trial. A copy of the memorandum can be found here.

Similar decorum orders, like the one for the Willie Clark trial on Feb. 22, have been issued during high profile cases in Denver at both the federal and state level.

A Republican blog last week reported that Attorney General John Suthers won’t support three of the four Colorado Supreme Court justices on the ballot in November. The Republican attorney general isn’t talking, except to say that he wishes he had kept quiet, The Denver Post reports. “I should not have gotten into any of that,” Suthers said Monday. “I regret the conversation.”