Famed Pot Attorney Rob Corry Hit With Year Ban on Practicing Law

Rob Corry was once more famous for practicing law than for being on the wrong side of it. But after a series of arrests and embarrassing incidents in Colorado and beyond, Corry has now been formally barred from working as an attorney in the state for one year and one day — and his legal difficulties are far from over.

Much of Corry's renown was based on his work for marijuana reform. He helped write Amendment 64, the 2012 ballot measure that legalized recreational cannabis sales in the state; staged stunts like free joint giveaways to draw attention to pot-related issues; and was deeply involved in a previous version of the Denver 4/20 rally. He's also represented clients in legal cases that had nothing to do with marijuana, including Rogel Lazaro Aguilera-Mederos, the 23-year-old Houston truck driver accused of causing an enormous crash on Interstate 70 that killed four people in April 2019.

In recent months, Corry faced two bond-revocation beefs for which warrants were issued, a date in Denver County Court over a bizarre July 2019 sword fight and alleged violation of a protection order, and two cases out of Iowa stemming from a misdemeanor domestic-violence arrest on September 5 (which resulted in the mug shot at the top of this post).

And those are hardly the only items on Corry's rap sheet. Here are four previous examples:

• In 1998, Corry was charged in Washington, D.C., with menacing some drinking buddies using a shotgun. For this offense, he served 35 days in jail.

• In 2006, he was accused of sexual assault. In that incident, a female friend with narcolepsy who'd been drinking wound up spending the night at the Arvada residence that Corry shared with his then-wife. The woman subsequently awakened to discover that a naked man was on top of her. She initially thought it was her boyfriend and began performing oral sex on him, only to discover moments later that the person in question was actually Corry, who later blamed his behavior on alcohol. He eventually pleaded guilty to third-degree assault, a misdemeanor, and in January 2007 was sentenced to five years of probation and sixty days in jail. Corry is said to have served 44 days before being released early for good behavior, and he underwent treatment for substance abuse.

• In June 2013, cops nabbed Corry after he allegedly broke the window of a recreational vehicle.

• On September 25, 2013, during the final home game of Colorado Rockies all-star Todd Helton at Coors Field, Corry was among several people seen publicly smoking marijuana. When an officer asked him to hand over his joint, he replied, "No, I don't have to, it's legal." Other quotes attributed to him on the arrest affidavit: "I don't have any ID and don't have to give you shit"; "Oh, fuck off, cop. It's a citation only — public consumption"; "I am going back to my seat and watch the game"; "You're a stupid cop. You are going to make this easy for me. You can't search me. It's a citation only"; and "You can go wherever you want. I am getting my stupid citation for public smoking and going back to the game. You can fuck off and bring me my ticket."

Last year proved to be a particularly busy one for Corry. He was arrested on June 14, 2019, on suspicion of kidnapping and more in connection with a crazy drive at Denver International Airport motivated by a supposed pursuit by Arabs with a helicopter. Less than a month later, on July 2, he was handcuffed for allegedly waving a samurai-style sword at people near West Eighth Avenue and Acoma Street. And on September 27, 2019, he was contacted by two Denver police officers following a traffic accident with another occupied vehicle on the 1400 block of Downing. His so-called "indicia of impairment" included an all-caps roster: "SPEECH AS SLURRED/MUMBLING, BREATH HAD A STRONG ODOR OF AN UNKNOWN ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE, BALANCE WAS SWAYING/STAGGERING, EYES WERE BLOODSHOT/WATERY."

After Corry was placed in the "DUI room" at a nearby Denver police station, law enforcement officials discovered the existence of at least two protection orders. The findings led to Corry being briefly jailed last October, and First Judicial District DA Pete Weir filed paperwork questioning Corry's ability to properly defend Aguilera-Mederos for the I-70 crash. In May 2020, Aguilera-Mederos formally obtained a new attorney, mere months before the Iowa arrest.

Against this backdrop, William R. Lucero, who serves as presiding disciplinary judge for the Colorado Supreme Court, suspended Corry's license to practice law on November 13. Among the violations to which Corry admitted: committing a criminal act that reflected poorly on his fitness to be a lawyer.

Corry has not responded to Westword's request for comment.