Robert Blackburn

Jimma Reat: Ruling in botched 911 call case opens door to federal civil rights trial

Last September, the family of Jimma Reat, a Sudanese immigrant who was killed after a 911 operator told him and his companions to return to Denver after they'd escaped a racially motivated attack, filed suit against the City of Denver. Since then, a judge issued a ruling that limited the scope of th ... More >>

Will the real Rick Strandlof please stand up?

Also read: Stolen Valor was born in Colorado before dying with the Supreme Court

Louis Hampers: Prosecutors want former ER doc to serve prison time for Rx drug fraud

Last month, defense attorneys for Louis Hampers filed a motion asking that the former doctor be sentenced to probation for the crime of writing phony prescriptions to feed his pill addiction. This week, prosecutors filed their own motion, arguing that he should instead be sentenced to the previously ... More >>

Louis Hampers: Defense lawyers ask that disgraced doctor be sentenced to probation

Hampers.​The sentencing hearing for former ER doc Louis Hampers has been delayed once again. Charged with writing 654 phony prescriptions in 2009 and 2010, Hampers pleaded guilty this past July to much less: fourteen counts of prescription drug fraud. His sentencing hearing was rescheduled fro ... More >>

Occupy Denver: Exhibits let you judge First Amendment case for yourself (PICS)

​This week's federal court hearing between Occupy Denver and the city ended in a denied injunction but much food for thought. Lead plaintiffs attorney David Lane called the decision a civil rights tragedy and said Judge Robert Blackburn "ignored most of the evidence we put in front of him." In ... More >>

Occupy Denver: David Lane says refusal to grant restraining order a civil rights tragedy

​Update by Michael Roberts: Attorney David Lane doesn't foresee appealing a court's refusal to grant a temporary restraining order on behalf of Occupy Denver protesters, who claim their First Amendment rights have been systematically squelched. However, he has strong words for case overseer Ju ... More >>

Occupy Denver timeline: Two-and-a-half months that have shaken the city

​Monday's hearing in regard to Occupy Denver's request for a temporary restraining order against the city and county is one indication of how far the movement has come in its short life span. In the little more than two months the movement has called Broadway its ideological home, the group ha ... More >>

Occupy Denver: Mayor Michael Hancock talks about denied injunction and police frustrations

Michael Hancock.​Following the announcement that Judge Robert Blackburn denied Occupy Denver's request for a temporary restraining order against the City and County of Denver, Mayor Michael Hancock spoke -- briefly -- about the decision's implications for the city. His take on the matter: Thos ... More >>

Occupy Denver hearing: Police officer made fake Twitter account to harass occupation "idiots"

​Yesterday's hearing for an injunction on behalf of Occupy Denver came with an unfair share of sarcasm and surprises, but one stood out far beyond the others: While one document from Officer James Henning suggested a plan to stay the current course until the occupation "wears itself out," anot ... More >>

Occupy Denver profile: Kerri Kellerman wants safer space for women & transgender occupiers

Kerri Kellerman.​It takes a while for Kerri Kellerman to remember the last time she had health insurance, and she laughs before she answers: 1995. It doesn't really matter, though. Outside of her life with Occupy Denver, the 38-year-old has not seen a doctor since 1992. Outside of the occupat ... More >>

Occupy Denver: Charge against plaintiff in David Lane lawsuit dropped days before court date

Update: Two of the charges incurred by supporters of Occupy Denver in recent weeks were dropped over the weekend when the city attorney's office decided against officially filing in both cases. The most notable of the two instances is that of Natalie Wyatt, who has since enlisted as a plaintiff on t ... More >>

Louis Hampers: Indicted Children's Hospital doctor posts $2.5 million cash bond

Louis Hampers.​Louis Hampers, the Children's Hospital ER doctor charged with writing 654 phony prescriptions to feed what his lawyers say was a raging pill addiction, posted a $2.5 million cash bond this morning. He will be released from jail sometime today. Hampers has been in custody sinc ... More >>

Kristen Parker: Sentencing options for the hep C inflicter

How can Kristen Parker make amends? ​Last Friday U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn threw out a plea bargain deal for former Rose Medical Center employee Kristen Parker, who admitted infecting surgical patients with hepatitis C through needles contaminated by her own drug use. No real surpri ... More >>

Wake-Up Call: End of the line for the Ski Train

​My first view of Denver was from a train -- the Denver Zephyr, which a group of families had boarded in Chicago one afternoon in the mid-'60s. The kids had commandeered the dome car, where we slept on the floor under the seats, and as the sun rose, we got our first sight of the Rockies. My ... More >>

Defiant attorney awaits cold day in hell for psych exam

Mark Brennan: Let the hell-freezing begin.​When a state disciplinary judge suspended Mark Brennan's license to practice law for a year, finding that he intentionally engaged in "obstreperous behavior" in winning a $1.2 million federal verdict against the City of Denver, one requirement for rei ... More >>

Attorney Mark Brennan suspended over contentious cookbook case

Photo by Mark MangerMark Brennan is facing some unpleasant music.​The Colorado Supreme Court's disciplinary judge has finally issued a ruling in the long-running saga of Mark Brennan, the pugnacious attorney who won a $1.2 million judgment against the City of Denver in 2006 -- only to see it t ... More >>

Caught on tape: when lawyers attack

Mark Brennan. Photo by Mark Manger. As I reported last week, things got pretty testy near the end of the three-day disciplinary hearing for attorney Mark Brennan. A physical confrontation between Brennan and his chief accuser, Kim Ikeler of the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, erupted when Ik ... More >>

Mark Brennan: He's loud, he's physical, he's profane. But does that make him a bad lawyer?

Mark Brennan. Photo by Mark Manger. It began with Presiding Disciplinary Judge William Lucero slapping attorney Mark Brennan with two contempt citations. It ended with Brennan leaning into opposing counsel Kim Ikeler, moving him bodily away from the podium and calling him "a little piece of shit." ... More >>

Dude, where's my lawyer? Francis "lawyer rat" Pignatelli officially banned from Colorado courts

If there was just one tenet of belief among the sneaky ranks of big-time criminal defense attorneys, it would be this: Thou shall not squeal on a client. Francis Pignatelli was a prominent defense attorney in Ohio until 2005, when federal agents learned that he had been helping clients launder d ... More >>

Denver shells out $850,000 to settle costly cookbook case

Blackburned

Who’s the bigger bully — the smartass attorney who scorched the Denver Fire Department, or the fussbudget judge who threw out the verdict?

Judge Blackburn to Whistleblower: Shut Up Already

Off Limits

A tale of two Arnolds

In Sickness and in Wealth

Medicaid patients could be facing death by a thousand cuts.

DOUBLE EXPOSUREUNDERAGE GIRLS, A NAZI WITH A CAMERA, AND PARTYING COPS--WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?