Sidney Thomas
President Obama has accelerated his search for his next Supreme Court nominee, meeting in the Oval Office with one of the candidates, federal judge Sidney Thomas of Montana, a person familiar with the conversation says, Newser.com reports.
Obama’s meeting with Thomas yesterday was his first known formal interview for the upcoming vacancy on the court. He’s holding conversations with other candidates, but it’s unclear whether he’s had any other face-to-face meetings.
Robin Finegan
Robin Finegan, who counseled Oklahoma City bombing and Columbine High School victims, has been named regional administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Most recently, she worked for Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey as his program director for consumer fraud protection. She begins her new job Wednesday, The Denver Post reports.
Finegan is the wife of Hogan & Hartson Denver Managing Partner Cole Finegan. Finegan is a former Denver city attorney and former chief of staff to Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper.
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:
Stephanie Villafuerte has withdrawn her name from consideration to become Colorado’s next U.S. Attorney, The Denver Post reports. In a letter to President Barack Obama, who nominated her for the post, and Attorney General Eric Holder, Villafuerte said she was confident she would have “served well in this important position” but was withdrawing because of “political attacks” surrounding her role in the 2006 Colorado gubernatorial campaign.
Robert H. Henry, prominent in Oklahoma government and public affairs for many years, is giving up his lifetime position on Denver’s 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which serves Oklahoma, to become head of Oklahoma City University, The Tulsa World reports.
By Don Knox, LAW WEEK COLORADO
U.S. Attorney nominee and Gov. Bill Ritter aide Stephanie Villafuerte says in a newly released letter that she didn’t press the Denver DA’s office to access a secret government database about a criminal case that figured in a TV commercial for a competing gubernatorial candidate.
Nor did she lie to the FBI about the incident, she writes.
Villafuerte’s assertions are contained in a letter to Sen. Mark Udall written and forwarded Thursday to the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is weighing Villafuerte’s nomination to the post by President Barack Obama. The cover letter was signed by Udall and Colorado’s other senator, Michael Bennet.
“At no time did I violate the letter or spirit of the law regarding possession of federal criminal database information from the National Crime Information Center and … at no time was I in any way dishonest with investigators” looking into the contested TV commercial,” Villafuerte writes.
The television ad centered on Mexican national Walter Noel Ramo, a defendant in a Colorado criminal case who was allowed to plea bargain to a trespass charge that did not result in his being deported. After his plea, Ramo, also known as Carlos Estrada Medina, went to California where he committed a sexual offense against a minor.
However, the connection between Ramo and his alter ego was contained nowhere other than the NCIC database, which is not to be used publicly.
A federal agent, Cory Voorhis, later was charged with leaking the Ramo/Medina data to the campaign of Republican gubernatorial candidate Cory Voorhis. He was acquitted, and one juror said the jurors felt the agent had been singled out for prosecution. Voorhis also is trying to get his old job back.
In her letter, Villafuerte said she called a Denver DA’s spokeswoman on Oct. 10, 2006, to seek public information, not secret information, about the Ramo/Medina case. She’s certain of this, she wrote, because she and the rest of the Ritter campaign already had concluded by this time that the NCIC database had been accessed in this, and other, instances.
“The Ritter campaign had already formed conclusions about the use of the databse based upon an independent investigation and presented those findings to the CBI before the Denver District Attorney’s Office ran the report from the NCIC database,” she wrote.
Villafuerte also said in her letter that she never denied having contact with members of the DA’s office during the Ritter campaign.
