Comments on: Know Your Judge: Citizen Input on District/County Judges

By: Greg Casas

Greg Casas — Tue, 11 Jun 2013 22:18:26 +0000

I love looking through a post that will make people think.

Also, many thanks for allowing for me to comment!

By: CTBC Director

CTBC Director — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 23:31:32 +0000

Hi Joann –

you went one page too far – evaluations and ratings for statewide judges are on the Evaluations 2012 page: http://www.clearthebenchcolorado.org/evaluations-2012/

The page you were looking at lists the district/county judges at the local level.

By: Joann

Joann — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 16:32:44 +0000

No recommendations are found here for all the judges I have to vote for: Coats of the Colo. Supreme Court; olo. court of Appeals Booras, casebolt, Graham, Miller, Taubman, Webb; 19th Judicial Dist. Harmann, Strobel, Taylor, Tuttle. Where can I find evaluations on these people?

By: samantha

samantha — Sun, 27 May 2012 03:24:03 +0000

I have been going through the family court system in Douglas county for the past three years. I can say that I have been in front of 2 judges and 2 magistrates. Judges Cashette and Cross are knowledgeable and fair. Cross is nice, but also tends to give a lot of financial breaks for noncustodial parents, however I truly believe he cares about all who come in front of him, with best interest of the child in min. Cashette is up for retention. He is a no nonsense guy who seems to know the law very well. He doesn’t seem to emotional, which can be a great quality for a judge. I would consider both judges as fair and equitable.
My complaints are with the two magistrates I encountered. The first is Findorff. She lacks legal knowledge and did things right off the bat to screw up our case and increase attorney fees for both sides. She declared first hand knowledge as hearsay which the attorneys in case agree it wasn’t. She insisted on writing the stipulated temp orders herself while hearing the case and “forgot” to write in the amount of child support stipulated to (creating a headache for both sides). I have discussed this case with a number of lawyers and they think she’s an idiot. My second complaint is against Beth Dumler. She differed findings from Cross, although they had already been heard and ordered. She stated that a father, who has spent a total of 18 hours with his four year old, made four times, the income of the mother during the child’s first year, and currently makes twice the income of the mother, and who refused to pay any amount of child support for 18 months, and the rest, grossly underpaid based on misrepresentation of income, has no responsibility to do so. Thus, a parent can have the ability to pay child support and not and then when the time comes, argue it would be an undue hardship, negating the fact that the mother is in debt due to the expenses of day care, shelter, and food while the other parent chose to not help at all. How do we remove magistrates who so not know the law and make unfair and biased decisions?

By: Michelle

Michelle — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 19:05:13 +0000

Yes there is a debtors prison alive and well in Durango, Colorado!

I am facing a 10 day jail sentence for failure to pay a small claims judgement. I am the mother of 2, not employed outside of my home and rely on my husbands small income to get our family through. I was recently in Magistrate Sara Law’s courtroom who made changes to an existing judgment to be able to throw me into jail, and then gave me a 10 day jail sentence for failure to pay. She was unable to prove my income and in fact didn’t even ask me about it, she only asked me one question ” is your husband employed?” bam, you’re going to jail..!!
She didn’t review his income or anything, she just assumed that his income was mine, even though we are low income…

By: blair

blair — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 21:27:18 +0000

I recall a little 8 year old guardian child who was ordered to be taken from our home by Judge Stewart. She heard evidence he was attached strongly, yet sent deputies to our home to rip him from our home because we disagreed with the plan for his adoption, and felt he should be adopted by a family to whom he was attached, not strangers. I will never forget her saying to me “Go home and get him packed and act like it is any other day.” She never had to see his absolute panic and fear, as he danced from one foot to the other, begging us in screaming sobs, “Please, I don’t want to go!” He was drug out the door angrily and thrown in the back seat of an attorney’s car, where he bounced around in terror, still screaming, and was driven away. Please remember, he was not removed due to any abuse or neglect – that was the opposite, as he was so loved here,he wanted to remain or go home to the mother who raised him most of his life – but was removed in that terrible, torturous manner because the attorney wanted ‘help’ to get him and send him to strangers. The damage to that child was amazing. No one could convince him he isn’t going to be snatched by strangers yet again. Yet, Judge Stuart ordered us to let him be abused by her order and ‘act like it is a perfectly normal day.” Amazing. We have sent many foster children to adoptive parents even when we don’t agree with the adoptive parents picked for the children. We have good-bye and Happy Going Home parties for them, and send them out the door with smiles on their faces, while we support their adoption. How simple that would have been in this case. I tried to stand up in court and ask for that, but Judge Stewart basically told me to listen to HER; she would not listen to me. Therefore, a small boy was permanently damaged. Shame on her – shame on her -

By: CTBC Director

CTBC Director — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 18:47:50 +0000

Perhaps – or perhaps she has a point.
I’ve noted that many of the people attacking those who comment on what they perceive to be negative performance by judges throw around the “they just didn’t like the outcome” characterization.
Sometimes that may be the case – but often, when a pattern emerges, there’s some fire causing the smoke…

By: Larry Smart

Larry Smart — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 17:29:41 +0000

Complaint against 17th Judicial District Katherine R. Delgado

http://knowyourcourts.com/News/2008-10-25_lomtevasComplaintReDelgadoWebVer.pdf

By: Katelyn

Katelyn — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 16:20:33 +0000

Clearly, this Patricia Finely did not get the outcome she so desired. Completely looks like a witch hunt for Judge Stewart. Maybe, there is a reason Ms. Finely is no long practcing law….she is too busy with her friends at the news!

By: CTBC Director

CTBC Director — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 14:10:51 +0000

Probably a better response would be to leave that space blank; why buy the proverbial “pig in a poke?”
That will also send a message – without getting rid of any good judges, who will end up being retained.