Law

Miguel Ita stabbing: DA frustrated by new rules for charging fifteen year olds as adults

Last week, we told you about the decision of the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office to name Miguel Angel Ita, fifteen, as the prosecutorial target in a fatal Lakewood stabbing and begin the procedure to try him as an adult. That process has changed, and not for the better in the view of Je ... More >>

Photos: "Pro marriage" supporters protest civil union bill at State Capitol

At noon, two days after a Senate committee voted to approve a bill allowing same-sex civil unions, a sizable crowd of "pro-marriage" supporters rallied on the steps of the State Capitol building. A similar gathering took place in May last year following the failure of another civil union bill. But ... More >>

Colorado Civil Unions Act to be reintroduced today, activist optimistic about its chances

Although Colorado has led the way in the effort to legalize small amounts of marijuana, it's another bill that may just push the state into the 21st century: the Colorado Civil Unions Act. After dying on the legislative floor last year, the bill will be heard and debated at 1:30 p.m. today by the Co ... More >>

Colorado will soon be a player in the patent wars

On the front lines of the costliest battle in the high-tech world

Strange Brewing faces a trademark threat from a Massachusetts homebrew shop

Something strange is going on. In September, as Denver's Strange Brewing was gearing up for a small expansion as well as the Great American Beer Festival, owners John Fletcher and Tim Myers got a letter from a lawyer demanding that they change their name. See also: - De Steeg Brewing will open on ... More >>

Medical marijuana dispensaries can't deduct business expenses on state tax returns

Marijuana, even of the medical variety, remains illegal at the federal level -- meaning that dispensary owners can't take business deductions on tax returns they submit to the feds. But since MMJ is legal in Colorado, shouldn't they be able to deduct legitimate business expenses on state forms? Mitc ... More >>

"Big Bitch" policy divides DA candidates George Brauchler, Leslie Hansen

This week's feature, "Sucker Punch," traces how an assault at a heavy metal concert turned into a habitual criminal prosecution in Arapahoe County, with one of the defendants facing a mountain of time while the other got probation. In the three-way race for district attorney in the 18th Judicial Dis ... More >>

Marijuana: DA Stan Garnett defends telling feds to back off Boulder MMCs

Update:This week, Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney John Walsh asking him not to send seizure threats to any Boulder medical marijuana dispensaries conforming to state and local land use regulations. When asked about the note, Walsh's spokesman said his boss woul ... More >>

Democratic caucuses: Senators, faith leaders encourage participation, decry vote suppression

In a 1965 civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, African-Americans and other minority citizens secured the right to vote. To honor their efforts, Colorado Democratic lawmakers, faith leaders and march veterans are urging citizens to utilize their voting rights by participating in toni ... More >>

Civil unions could generate $4.8 million for Colorado in first three years, study says

one-colorado.org​ If Colorado lawmakers pass a bill to legalize civil unions, the state could see a bump in its bank account -- $4.8 million in the first three years, according to a report by the California-based sexual orientation think tank The Williams Institute. That money would come from ... More >>

The problems with SOPA and its sweeping side effects

Remember that mixtape you made for your high-school sweetheart? Or that time you taped a movie off cable? Turns out you were breaking the law, pirating copyrighted materials without permission. While the statute of limitations has probably long passed on your crimes of teenage passion, entertainme ... More >>

Reader: Occupy Denver legal team member calls out ACLU over civil-rights case claims

​Kelsey Whipple's recent post about Occupy Denver's legal team exploring legal precedents involving tents as examples of speech drew a sharp response from a member of the occupation's Legal Issues Working Group. His post focuses on both the aforementioned lawyers and the ACLU, which he feels c ... More >>

What Goes Around

How victim rights became a juggernaut shaping spending, laws and the future of punishment

Beyoncé accused of plagiarism for a dance number -- wait, can you copyright dance moves?

​Beyoncé can't seem to catch a break this year: Back in May, she was accused of pulling a little more than just a casual homage to Lorella Cuccarini with her VMA performance of "Run the World (Girls)," and now she's getting called out for copping dance moves from German choreographer Anne Ter ... More >>

Mike Coffman, repeat Shmuck, wants to make it harder for Spanish speakers to vote

Mike Coffman.​U.S. Representative Mike Coffman is no stranger to voter suppression. In fact, the 6th District Republican lawmaker has a long history of tinkering with elections. His latest campaign would make it more difficult for people who don't speak English well to vote across the country ... More >>

U.K. announces copyright reform plan

​While the U.S. has been floundering a bit with its copyright law, the British government has just announced its plans to reform and update its own. Its certainly not the most important issue facing the U.S. government right now, but it was a platform during President Obama's campaign and rema ... More >>

Jon Bellish, DU student, blogs from The Hague on Ratko Mladic war crimes trial

Ratko Mladic.​When you're in your third year of law school, you want something a bit meatier than dusty lectures and heavily footnoted case studies. If you're Jon Bellish, that means you head for The Netherlands -- and the trial of a man charged with some of the most heinous war crimes of mod ... More >>

Michael Hancock prostitution story: Do Denver cops have different rules for mayor-elect, press?

Michael Hancock.​Although the uproar over reports allegedly linking mayor-elect Michael Hancock to the Denver Players prostitution operation has died down, one journalist -- Complete Colorado's Todd Shepherd, who broke the story in the first place -- isn't giving up. But he's hit a roadblock w ... More >>

Medical marijuana: Rob Corry wouldn't sign MMJ clean-up bill if he were John Hickenlooper

Rob Corry.​Last October, attorney Rob Corry wrote to John Hickenlooper to ask the then-Denver mayor to stop prosecuting Lacy Lee, a woman busted for smoking pot at a pro-cannabis rally; the case was later dropped. Now, Corry's written to Hick again, this time to offer expert analysis on HB 104 ... More >>

Grooveshark challenges Google and the music industry in a battle of legalities

​In case you haven't been paying attention, there are some heated battles going on in the digital space right now with regard to digital music distribution rights. Just three weeks ago, Amazon launched their cloud storage and streaming services much to the chagrin of the major labels. As we wa ... More >>

Steaming music illegally could be felonious if IP Enforcement's recommendations are enacted

​The White House has publically stated it's going to start cracking down on piracy and enforcing IP law, but other than some crackdowns last year, we haven't seen much in the way of a cohesive strategy. Well, until Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel delivered this t ... More >>

Janet Napolitano intros "If You See Something, Say Something" video: Like 24, except lamer

Video below.​Why was Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano in Denver yesterday? To promote the expansion to Colorado of DHS' "If You See Something, Say Something" campaign. The flagship item is a video on view below about the general public keeping an eye out for terrorist ... More >>

One Denver man's obscure but intriguing copyright case goes to the Supreme Court

Stravinsky, looking shifty-eyed.​It's been ten years since University of Denver professor Lawrence Golan filed his copyright suit in Colorado District Court, seeking the revocation of copyrights retroactively placed on works previously in the public domain, and now, after a lot of batting arou ... More >>

Civil Union Act debate begins: Senator Pat Steadman says public is ready for measure

Pat Steadman.​Today at 1:30 p.m., the senate judiciary committee and members of the public will begin discussing Senate Bill 172, the Colorado Civil Union Act, co-sponsored by Senator Pat Steadman: Read it below. Back in 2006, Colorado voters rejected a referendum that would have established m ... More >>

Jacob Christenson arson case: Denver Post backpedals on story, confused about kid stuff

Jacob & Mom.​Cloaked in secrecy, juvenile court matters are so rarely covered in Colorado that it's been instructive watching the Denver Post fumble a bit in its reporting on Jacob Christenson, the eleven-year-old in Parker charged with second-degree arson over a fire that caused $195,000 in d ... More >>

Google actively combats copyright infringement

​Google has announced a new plan to help combat copyright infringement by reshaping their search technology and offering an easier and more accessible takedown request form. The news comes hot on the heals of news that the U.S. Government has begun a multi-tiered crackdown on piracy and counte ... More >>

Martyred Unknown

ACLU stands up for right of Colorado Springs middle schooler to wear rosary at public school

Flickr​Critics of the ACLU portray the organization as an apologist for flag burners. As such, the group loves to show it's about principles, not ideology. Case in point: Its defense of Cainan Gostnell, a Colorado Springs student whose middle school has banned wearing religious symbols like ro ... More >>

Cannabis Therapy Institute attacks new regs, declares medical marijuana law unconstitutional

Friday's MMJ meeting.​On Friday, the Colorado Department of Revenue's medical marijuana advisory committee met at a session belatedly opened to the public -- and the folks at the Cannabis Therapy Institute were troubled by the draft regulations released in conjunction with the get-together. S ... More >>

Ward Churchill-Scott McInnis connection: Plagiarism's their common bond, say CU regents

Ward Churchill.​The Scott McInnis plagiarism brouhaha has been a gift to the Colorado Democratic Party, which has had trouble whipping up the faithful of late -- and they're taking advantage of it. The latest broadside: a statement from two CU regents, Michael Carrigan and Stephen Ludwig, who ... More >>

Bare nipples at Boulder city council meeting: David Lane takes on Seth Brigham's cause

Seth Brigham being arrested.​To protest an ordinance that might have criminalized women who publicly bare their nipples, Boulder's Seth Brigham stripped to his boxers at a February city council meeting -- and was promptly arrested. Four months later, David Lane, fresh from winning a $5.9 mill ... More >>

Josh "Penal" Penry: Felons vote the Democratic ticket

"How can I woo the sex offender vote?"​Yes, it's the season for blustery rhetoric and high-pressure posturing down at the statehouse. But few stunts can match, for sheer unintended hilarity, this recent blast from Colorado Senate Republicans, denouncing a bill to restore voting rights to stat ... More >>

Children behind bars: Why Colorado is trigger-happy when it comes to sentencing kids like Alan Sudduth as adults

Alan Sudduth was sixteen years old when prosecutors charged him as an adult.​Our cover story this week recounts the tale of Alan Sudduth, a juvenile who was sentenced to seventy years in prison in 1996 for the murder of a cab driver -- even though a recent hearing showed that the prosecution's ... More >>

Colorado Civil Rights Commission discovers that discrimination has not disappeared in a decade

​The people gathered in a meeting room at the Blair Caldwell library last summer were getting restless. "You all wasted our time," proclaimed one community activist. "This was not a waste of your time," replied Rico Munn, then-director of the Colorado Department of Regulatory Affairs, which i ... More >>

Rob Corry threatens Denver City Council with lawsuits over medical marijuana ordinance

A spoof ad showing Rob Corry as a "scorced earth warrior" for medical marijuana.​On Friday, we shared with you a letter by attorney Rob Corry shredding Senator Chris Romer's latest draft of a measure to regulate the medical marijuana industry. Shortly thereafter, Romer backed away from the bil ... More >>

Medical marijuana attorney Rob Corry: "The future is here"

Rob Corry has his PR cannon aimed squarely at Centennial.​The lawsuit against Centennial by CannaMart, a medical marijuana dispensary the city shut down despite granting it a business license a short time earlier, gets its first reading in court today, and Rob Corry and a team of attorneys rep ... More >>

Operation Dead-Beat Parent sweeps up almost half of top child-support avoiders

"If I win, I hope to hell he pays child support."​One reason so many parents skip out on child support after a divorce: Given how overburdened the system is, there's seldom anyone in authority to make them keep the money train rolling. In an attempt to change that equation, the Arapahoe Count ... More >>

Medical-marijuana-dispensary closure lawsuit could set precedent, attorney says

Bob Hoban and Rob Corry, joined by plaintiffs, speak at a news conference today about the CannaMart lawsuit.​Earlier today, we told you about a lawsuit aimed at Centennial for closing CannaMart, a medical-marijuana dispensary, in mid-October. According to Bob Hoban, one of two attorneys repres ... More >>

Drink up, Denver! The Division of Civil Rights has confirmed your right to enjoy ladies' night

Steve Horner fights for his right to be wrong.

Wake-Up Call: Civil rights, better late than never

​"You all wasted our time," proclaimed community activist Alvertis Simmons at a public forum held July 27 by the Colorado Division of Civil Rights. "This was not a waste of your time," replied Rico Munn, the cool-headed director of the Department of Regulatory Affairs, which includes the Div ... More >>

Wake-Up Call: Civil Rights on the road

​ The Colorado Civil Rights Commission took its show on the road last night, hosting an evening forum at the Blair-Caldwell Library. And if the conversation didn't seem to go exactly where Colorado Civil Rights Division director Steve Chavez wanted it to go -- after an active initial discussio ... More >>

Steve Horner: A name that drives people to drink

On my way home from the Colorado Civil Rights Forum last night, I stopped by Lola, which was hosting the first of the Denver Five dinners. (More on that coming later today from Nancy Levine, who was at the dinner from the start.) And, inevitably, I spotted a restaurateur in the crowd who's had rece ... More >>

Ladies Night foe Steve Horner doesn't even live here. So how can we discriminate against him?

The Colorado Civil Rights Division has a double standard for ladies' nights -- and newspapers

Right-to-work lightning rod Ryan Frazier cleared of wrongdoing for political contributions

Up-and-coming Aurora city councilman Ryan Frazier put his political career on the line by backing Amendment 47, the hugely controversial right-to-work ballot measure that failed in the polls last month. Among other political attacks, the 31-year-old Republican was the subject of an ominous televisio ... More >>

Wayne Laugesen Vs. Richard Baker: The Debate

The Good, The Bad & The Mad

What happens to the mentally ill in the justice system is just crazy.