Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc violated a U.S. disability law by making the walls between customers and food-preparation counters in its restaurants too high, a federal appeals court ruled on Monday, according to Reuters.

A panel of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said the 45-inch walls violated the Americans with Disabilities Act because Chipotle did not provide disabled customers with an experience “equivalent” to what non-disabled customers enjoy in being able to watch employees assemble burritos and tacos.

Read the decision below.

Chipotle

A Pitkin County grand jury has indicted three people in connection to the carbon monoxide poisoning deaths of a Denver family of four over the Thanksgiving holidays in 2008, the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent writes.

Glenwood Springs resident Marlin Brown and Erik Peltonen were both indicted on four class-five felony charges of criminally negligent homicide, Assistant Deputy District Attorney Arnold Mordkin said Sunday. Both were served with arrest warrants Friday, and were released on personal recognizance bonds of $11,000 each, Mordkin said.

The federal court ruling in Colorado dismissing a law that makes it illegal for people to falsely claim they earned combat military medals has some veterans ready for a fight that may stretch to the U.S. Supreme Court, The Tampa Tribune reports.

The decision handed down on Friday in Denver involved a man who told a government board that he had won combat medals as a Marine. The story was untrue, and he was charged under the Stolen Valor Act, enacted in 2005, which criminalized such behavior.
Tampa Bay area veterans filled a courtroom last month for the sentencing of Angel Ocasio-Reyes, accused of violating the Stolen Valor Act by wearing a Marine uniform complete with medals he never earned. He never served in the military.

John Sandoval’s murder trial took a dramatic turn Thursday when his cousin, and his wife’s brief lover, painted a portrait of a man who would kill, The Greeley Tribune reported.

Jesse Martinez spent the afternoon on the stand in Weld District Court fielding questions from attorneys about his brief affair with Kristina Tournai-Sandoval that started about a month before she left her husband in August 1995. It was an affair very much kept under wraps.

“If he would have found out during that time, I wouldn’t be here right now,” Martinez said. “I understood her fear completely.”

In other Colorado courts coverage:

The Denver Post: A woman says she was raped by a Grand Junction police officer and has sued the city, claiming the Police Department knew of his propensity for violence but allowed him to continue his assignment on patrol. The woman filed her lawsuit in June in Mesa County District Court, but the case was moved to U.S. District Court in Denver on Wednesday.

Boulder Daily Camera: A 37-year-old Boulder woman sentenced in April to probation for fatally stabbing her husband was in court Thursday on suspicion of selling cigarettes to a minor. Traci Housman, who was sentenced to seven years probation and 400 hours of community service for killing her husband John Housman during a fight at their Boulder home early Aug. 2, works at a gas station in Boulder and was ticketed June 1 for selling to a minor.

LAW WEEK COLORADO

DENVER — For the second time in a year, a Colorado Court of Appeals opinion has called attention to the “confusing appellate labyrinth” created by the Colorado Rules for Magistrates.

An opinion released on Thursday, In re the Marriage of Rene Stockman and Wayne Stockman, concerned an award for attorney fees issued by Mesa County Magistrate Judge Stephanie Rubinstein. The wife in the divorce case, who like her husband was representing herself pro se, filed an appeal with the Court of Appeals because Rubinstein’s instructions directed any appeals to go there.

But those instructions were incorrect, said Court of Appeals Judge John Dailey in the opinion. The appeal should have gone to district court.

“Although wife followed the directions provided by the magistrate to appeal directly to this court, the magistrate’s C.R.M. 7(b) language in this case was inappropriate and insufficient to confer jurisdiction upon us,” Dailey wrote.

Though the deadline to do appeal in district court has expired, Dailey said, some leeway should be granted because the wife acted on a magistrate’s instructions.

“The Colorado Rules for Magistrates create a ‘confusing appellate labyrinth’ perplexing both counsel and pro se parties alike, leading to the dismissal of a ‘significant, and perhaps unacceptable’ number of appeals,” Dailey wrote, quoting an opinion written by appeals court Judge Daniel Taubman in November. “This case presents a clear example of that ‘labyrinth’ as it resulted in erroneous language in the magistrate’s order and wife’s failure to seek district court review.”

LAW WEEK COLORADO

DENVER — The Colorado Court of Appeals released six published opinions on Thursday.

08CA0944 People v. Robert Shane Butler

09CA0058 People v. Nicolette Chris Padilla-Lopez

09CA0923 Jamie Snell v. Progressive Preferred Insurance Company

09CA1368 CB Richard Ellis, Inc., a Delaware corporation v. CLGP, LLC and Robert Hatch, Esq., and Gesco Corporation

09CA1467 City of Colorado Springs, Colorado v. Andersen Mahon Enterprises, LLP

10CA0125 In re the Marriage of Rene Stockman and Wayne Stockman

LAW WEEK COLORADO

DENVER — Who wants to be a justice, or an appeals judge?

Interested lawyers have until Monday to apply for the position on the Colorado Supreme Court that will open up when Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey steps down Nov. 30. Applications for that and the appeals-court seat being vacated by Sean Connelly must be submitted by 5 p.m. Monday to the ex officio chair of the Supreme Court Nominating Commission, Mullarkey herself.

The salary for the justice position is $139,660. The appeals-court job pays $134,128. All lawyers who have been admitted to practice law in Colorado for at least five years may apply. Applications are available on the state courts website.

The nominating commission will review applications on Aug. 11 and interview candidates on Aug. 23 and 24. At the end of the last day of interviews the commission will select a list of three nominees to be forwarded to Gov. Bill Ritter, who will have 15 days upon receipt of the list to choose a justice.

The 15-person nominating commission is composed of seven lawyers and seven non-lawyers from each of the state’s congressional districts, as well as one at-large non-lawyer. Statute calls for the chief justice to serve as the commission’s ex officio, non-voting chair.

Law Week Colorado has been keeping tabs on potential high-court applicants with our “Justice Tracker,” found below. Today we added the name of 18th Judicial District Judge Carlos Samour, Jr., to the list as someone recommended by sources as a Supreme Court contender. Samour did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment.

CJ Mullarkey Vacancy Annc PR Update

LAW WEEK COLORADO

DENVER — A former University of Northern Colorado student who had a criminal libel case against him dropped may resume his lawsuit against the Weld County prosecutor who authorized a search of his home, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday.

As reported by the Associated Press, Thomas Mink published the “Howling Pig” satirical website, which featured a fictional character named “Junius Puke,” based on UNC professor Junius Peake. The professor told the Greeley Police Department he thought the depiction was libelous. Deputy DA Susan Knox signed a search warrant affidavit that resulted in a computer and other materials being seized from Mink’s home. The DA’s office didn’t file the criminal libel case after determining Mink’s speech was protected by the First Amendment.

Mink, represented by the ACLU of Colorado, sued Knox for violating his rights, but it was dismissed in U.S. District Court, which found Knox was protected by qualified immunity.

The 10th Circuit on Monday reversed that decision, finding that qualified immunity doesn’t apply because Knox should have known the spoof was protected speech, and that the lawsuit may go forward.

Holland & Hart’s Marcy Glenn and Bruce Jones, and ACLU of Colorado’s Mark Silverstein represented Mink. Hall & Evans Andrew Ringel and David Brougham represented Knox.

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Jack Arbess

LAW WEEK COLORADO

DENVER — The trial of real-estate developer Jack Arbess for allegedly scamming investors out of $3.8 million ended last week in mistrial in Denver District Court, the Denver District Attorney’s office says.

Arbess was indicted by a Denver grand jury last year on 11 counts of theft and on charges of violating the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, as reported by The Denver Daily News. He allegedly transferred money from a real estate project in Jefferson County to his own account for personal use, according to The Denver Business Journal.

The white-collar crime trial began a week ago today in the new Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse. It was one of three felony trials to begin that day, which were the first in the courthouse that opened July 6.

Denver Chief Deputy DA Joe Morales led the prosecution; Gary Lozow of Isaacson Rosenbaum represented Arbess. But Judge Martin Engelhoff declared a mistrial due to juror misconduct. Denver DA spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough said one of the 12 jurors was found to have made “inappropriate comments.” She could not elaborate.

A new trial date has not been set.

The car of Kristina Tournai-Sandoval, who is presumed dead nearly 15 years, provides yet another small clue to the “massive puzzle” to her disappearance in October 1995, reports Sharon Dunn of the Greeley Tribune.

John Sandoval was arrested last year at his home in Las Vegas, and is accused of killing Tournai-Sandoval. Her body has never been found. The car “was found close to where her husband had been accused of breaking into a woman’s apartment to feed his voyeuristic tendencies,” Dunn reported. Witnesses testifying Monday and Tuesday said Tournai-Sandoval knew of her husband’s voyeurism and stalker-like behavior.

Public defenders argued that there were no signs of struggle, “blood or out-of-the ordinary fingerprints in either of the Sandovals’ homes or cars.”

Jurors are allowed to offer their own questions about the evidence. So far, they’ve submitted nine questions for police detective Clay Buckingham and four for other witnesses.

Read more of the Greeley Tribune’s live coverage of the Sandoval murder trial, which is in its first week, here.