Appellate Trials

Supreme Court will decide whether it's okay to lie about military service

Is lying about being a decorated combat vet particularly heinous? Or is 2005's Stolen Valor Act, which made it a misdemeanor offense to make false claims about receiving service medals and awards, unconstitutional because it violates the wannabe warrior's First Amendment rights?

Medical marijuana advisory committee shuts down, health dept. rejects caregiver definition

Brian Vicente.​In February, a meeting of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's medical marijuana advisory committee resulted in a definition of caregivers that cheered committee member Jill Lamoureux, who called it "movement forward for patient and caregiver rights." Now, ... More >>

Alan Sudduth behind bars: Court denies new trial for 1995 killing somebody else cops to

Alan Sudduth.​As recounted in the April story "The Boy Who Wouldn't Tell," Alan Sudduth has spent more than half his 31 years behind bars for the 1995 killing of Denver cab driver Finley Bradshaw Myers, even though somebody else -- a friend of Sudduth's named Nicholas Reed -- has repeatedly co ... More >>

Ladies' night all right with New York judges

Roy Den Hollander,feminist foe​Here in Colorado, ladies' nights have survived Steve Horner's repeated attempts to shut them down, and a New York appeals court has just ruled that ladies' nights are all right with them, too. The Manhattan-based Second Court of Appeals rejected Manhattan attorn ... More >>

Medical marijuana: Attorney general wants to revive rejected case against Frank Marzano

Rob Corry.​In July, attorney Rob Corry outlined his appeal on behalf of Frank Marzano, who was convicted of marijuana charges in 2007 after a search for a fugitive turned up medical marijuana. Two weeks ago, the Colorado Court of Appeals tossed the Marzano case on illegal-search-and-seizure gr ... More >>

CSU gun ban: Another school weapons prohibition bites the dust

Is Cam the Ram about to become Cambo?​Colorado State University System officials voted unanimously Wednesday to rescind the school's hotly contested campus gun ban in response to a court ruling last month that wiped out a similar prohibition at CU-Boulder. The CSU ban, which was passed earlie ... More >>

Guns on campus: CSU faces lawsuit in wake of court tossing CU's concealed-carry ban

​As promised, the Rocky Mountain Gun Owner's Club has filed suit against Colorado State University for its board's recent ban of concealed weapons on campus. With the suit filed on the same day as a Colorado Court of Appeals decision to throw out CU-Boulder's similar ban, it might have more am ... More >>

Rocky Flats judgment appealed while plaintiffs wait... and wait

​Plutonium lasts forever, and so do legal cases involving Rocky Flats. Yesterday, 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges Stephen Anderson, Jerome Holmes and Michael Murphy heard arguments in the appeal of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant class-action lawsuit -- filed by neighbors of t ... More >>

SF Weekly/Bay Guardian fight: Does it have any impact on Westword?

​One of the longest running battles in the alternative journalism field involves two San Francisco publications, the Bay Guardian and the SF Weekly, a part of the Village Voice Media chain, and a sister paper of Westword. Back in May 2008, as sketched out in the Editor & Publisher piece "Batt ... More >>

Westword pot humor makes it into Supreme Court filing in Stacy Clendenin medical marijuana case

Hope they've got a sense of humor.​At last -- a defense against readers who aren't wowed by Westword's marijuana jokes: An article filled with them is cited in a petition for Writ of Certiorari with the Colorado Supreme Court filed yesterday in the case of medical marijuana caregiver Stacy Cle ... More >>

Live blogging the Denver District Court pot hearing

A Flickr photo.​Last Thursday, several of the state's prominent pot lawyers filed a motion to void a recent Colorado Board of Health decision to strike from its rules what it means to be a marijuana caregiver -- a move that upended the burgeoning medical marijuana industry. Starting at 8:30 a. ... More >>

Brian Vicente on victory in hearing to void Board of Health's medical-marijuana ruling

Brian Vicente helped make the Board of Health back down, at least temporarily -- and he'll get paid for doing so.​As reported in our live blog about a Denver District Court hearing this morning, Judge Larry Naves ruled in favor of medical-marijuana advocates, who argued against a controversial ... More >>

John Suthers buzzing on Stacy Clendenin medical-marijuana ruling

"Why is everyone getting so worked up over little ol' me?"​In September, Joel Warner wrote a blog entitled "Could Clendenin Case Deal a Blow to Colorado's Pot Biz?" Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, who's been trying to put the medical-marijuana genie back in the bottle, certainly hopes ... More >>

Headed West owner on the saving of his hookah mural

Headed West owner Mike Mahaney in front of his mural.​Just because the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled against the City of Englewood in its effort to get rid of an Alice In Wonderland-inspired mural featuring a hookah-puffing insect doesn't mean Headed West owner Mike Mahaney, the man who comm ... More >>

Could Clendenin case deal a blow to Colorado's pot biz?

​As noted in this week's cover story, "Pot of Gold," while Colorado's Amendment 20, which legalized marijuana in 2000, does not cover the subject of marijuana dispensaries, a flood of such operations are opening statewide under the auspices of a complicated legal framework that's evolved withi ... More >>

The Colorado Judicial Building reeks

Views of the Colorado Judicial Building.​Good news for those of you who've always felt something stinks at the Colorado Judicial Building, where the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals are housed: Today, even Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey agrees with you. She's closed the str ... More >>

Tom Martino's arrogance helps him win court case

Tom Martino. Last week, self-proclaimed "Troubleshooter" Tom Martino, a KHOW personality who's also part of Channel 31's staff, came out on top of a ruling by a San Francisco-based federal appeals court. In the decision, a three-judge panel declined to overrule a lower court's dismissal of a lawsui ... More >>

Judge Kuenhold's Harmless Errors

Macho Nacchio Man

Kink in the System

Commerce City is taking the Enclave BDSM club all the way to the Supreme Court.

Legally Binding

The Enclave gave Commerce City quite a beating in court.

When Mistakes Don't Matter

The Colorado Court of Appeals upholds a sentence based on questionable evidence.

Smoked

Dirty Pictures

This Rocky Flats movie gets glowing reviews.

Pop Quiz

Bummer Summer
August 21, 2003

The High Cost of Free Speech

RTD pays a six-figure settlement for muzzling its own directors.

Follow That Story

Lingua Franca

Follow That Story

Let There Be Light

Follow That Story

Bush's Affirmative Action

Surprise Ending

Eulipions money set aside for theater may go to fund other black arts groups.

Scene From a Mall

Shopping-center execs love getting attention in the media -- as long as they call the shots.

Telling Tales Out of School

After her retarded daughter was sexually assaulted, a mother decided to teach DPS a lesson.

A State of Denial

Denver's legal team takes a beating in a police-brutality case.

Juris Prudence

DA Dave Thomas surrenders the case against wayward juror Laura Kriho.

Men in Dragnet

The Arvada Police Department likes to put on skirts and chase pedophiles.

Location, Location, Location

Nobody likes Bob Eason. Maybe it's because he has all the wrong (property) values.

Not a Pretty Picture

When you're fighting for artists' rights, things can get ugly.

Put Up or Shut Up

Want to fight a real estate development in Colorado? Be ready to pay to play.

Letty Wins

The Court of Appeals reverses a probate judge's controversial handling of the Letty Milstein case.

Packing It In

An Aurora mother loses custody of her son--for moving too much.

Motion to Dismiss

Should Judge Lynne Hufnagel be benched? Ask the bankrupt cabbies, bullied witnesses and banished lawyers who've tasted her bitter brand of justice.

Trial by Ire

The candidates in the Denver's DA's race refuse to come to order.

A SWEET DEAL

NEED A TAX BREAK FOR THE NEW YEAR? CONSIDER RAISING BEES, DONKEYS, HAY OR, AS A LAST RESORT, A STINK WITH THE COUNTY ASSESSOR.TO BEE OR NOT TO BEE? FOR A SUCCESSFUL DEVELOPER SEEKING A TAX BREAK, THAT'S NO QUESTION. BUT TAXPAYERS GET STUNG.

BURIED TREASURE

THE HONEYMOON'S LONG OVER FOR EX-EPA CHIEF ANNE BURFORD AND HER LATE HUSBAND--BUT THE DIVORCE IS FOREVER.

ALEXIS STAYS PUT

DAD WINS THE LATEST CUSTODY BATTLE FOR THE LITTLE GIRL WHOSE MOM WAS MURDERED IN NEW JERSEY.

JUDGING THE JUDGE

THE STATE SUPREME COURT CONSIDERS A FIRST AMENDMENT CASE FROM CANON CITY.