Know Your Judge: Citizen Input on District/County Judges 2012
On this page, Clear The Bench Colorado has collected comments and input from citizens across the state on judges in district and county courts.
(Evaluations of appellate courts – Colorado Supreme Court & Court of Appeals – are found on the Evaluations 2012 page)
Unless specifically noted, publication of any comments or recommendation on district or county court judges does NOT imply a recommendation by Clear The Bench Colorado; unfortunately, we have not had the resources (either funding or time) to review each of the 83 trial court judges on this year’s ballot. CTBC takes no official position on any of the district and county court judges seeking retention this year, and only provides the information below as a resource to inform voters.
CTBC has organized the comments received, by judicial district, as they have come in, as a community service to the hundreds of people who have called, E-mailed, Facebooked, or Tweeted asking for more information on their local judges as an alternative to the thoroughly discredited rubber-stamp “retain” recommendations purveyed by the “Blue Book”
Anyone wishing to comment on any judges on this year’s ballot is welcome to submit comments and responsible, documented articles of reasonable length (please, no rants or diatribes) as comments on this page or to our Sound Off! page.
(All judicial districts: another website of some help for reviewing District & County Judges in Colorado)
FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Gilpin, Jefferson Counties)
District Judge : Christopher J. Munch
Comments:
- Judge Munch terminated foreclosure procedure to cover up illegal acts that unlawfully converted a mortgage contract to the purchaser of a lien. Homeowner’s right to redeem under Colorado law was voided and life savings stolen by “court order.” (Case 94CV1928, Burge v. Behr)
Judge Munch’s actions obstructed and delayed justice, holding that division of marital property could be made before complete disclosure of such property, and magnified the legal costs of a divorce proceeding by over $100,000. (Case 97DR1971, Corry v. Corry) - Disagree with comments above. I have been in his [Judge Munch’s] courtroom on the positive and on the negative end, and I have to say, he has to have been the fairest and most sincere Judge I have dealt with.
District Judge : Christie Bachmeyer Phillips
Comments:
- Christie Bachmeyer Phillips is the most corrupt judge. She punishes decent, caring parents and hurts children. She is NOT stunning smart, she could not even pay attention during my hearing and even said she forgot why she was there, to decide what? She makes parents pay the most child support possible and she does not care about your rights to parent your own children. She is evil and is not interested in the truth, she takes one side and severly punishes the other parent. She does NOT care about the children’s best interests. She is not fair, lawyers have told me how awful she has been to their clients as well. I have no idea how she got a favorable review. She is morally corrupt and should not have the power to hurt families.
- Judge Christie Phillips is the most corrupt judge. She punishes decent, caring parents and hurts children. She is NOT stunning smart, she could not even pay attention during my hearing and even said she forgot why she was there, to decide what? She makes parents pay the most child support possible and she does not care about your rights to parent your own children. She is evil and is not interested in the truth, she takes one side and severly punishes the other parent. She does NOT care about the children’s best interests. She is not fair, lawyers have told me how awful she has been to their clients as well. I have no idea how she got a favorable review. She is morally corrupt and should not have the power to hurt families.
- Please vote out Judge Christie Phillips of Jefferson County. She did not hear my witnesses or care about my evidence. It was clear she had already made up her mind. She is very biased and does NOT follow the law. She hurts the innocent in her court room and she is a very evil person without a conscience. She needs to be voted out. PLEASE VOTE NO!
- Christine Phillips is rude, inconsiderate. Was inattentive, didn’t look at the case in front of her with an open mind. Didn’t see or care to see the one sided opinion of the “professional” with his own opinion. Ignored damning evidence against one side and continued to seemingly be in-compassionate towards the true victims in the case. I feel bad for all parties who come before her. Everyone loses, the only people who win are the courts, because no one is even closely happy to the compromise she sets up and they then must return to court to try and rectify her wrongs. The epitomy of red tape, corruption.
- I want to share a very unfortunate encounter that I had with a family law judge in Jefferson County. The judge is Christy Phillips and I’ll be glad to share my thoughts about her if you’d like me to call you or if you’d like for me to e-mail you. Let me know. Bottom line, she should not be returned to the bench whenever her term expires!!!!
Jefferson County Judge : Bradley Allen Burback
Comments:
- “Judge Burback ruled the U.S. Constitution ‘inadmissible’ as evidence or reference in a case dealing with constitutional issues”
- “Judge Burback sentenced a man to 13 months jail for a probation violation even though he had been found innocent of the underlying charge (reference: “Fighting against injustice in Jefferson County“)
Jefferson County Judge : Verna L. Carpenter
Jefferson County Judge : Tammy Greene
Jefferson County Judge : K.J. Moore
No county court judges standing for retention in Gilpin County.
SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Denver County)
Comments: Judge Jordan has [per commenter] displayed racial bias (differential treatment of criminal defendants of different ethnicity)
THIRD JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Huerfano, Las Animas Counties)
District Judge : Claude W. Appel
Comments: Allegations of improper judicial practices by Appel reported in October, 2001. He was accused of using cocaine by Judge Haeger and attorney Bill Danks (Denver Post, 10/17/03 p. 4B).
Huerfano County Judge : Gary Robert Stork
No county court judges standing for retention in Las Animas County.
FOURTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (El Paso, Teller Counties)
- Judge Cisneros (4th JD) is a liberal, activist judge legislating from the bench.
She puts her own biases and opinions before the law, and often lets dangerous criminals off the hook if they match her social and political views. Vote this one out.
FIFTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Clear Creek, Eagle, Lake, Summit Counties)
SIXTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Archuleta, La Plata, San Juan Counties)
SEVENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Delta, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Montrose, Ouray, San Miguel Counties)
EIGHTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Jackson, Larimer Counties)
NINTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Garfield, Pitkin, Rio Blanco Counties)
TENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Pueblo County)
ELEVENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Chaffee, Custer, Fremont, Park Counties)
TWELFTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache Counties)
THIRTEENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Kit Carson, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Yuma Counties)
FOURTEENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Grand, Moffat, Routt Counties)
FIFTEENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Baca, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Prowers Counties)
SIXTEENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Bent, Crowley, Otero Counties)
SEVENTEENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Adams, Broomfield Counties)
EIGHTEENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, Lincoln Counties)
- At times she literally screamed at the father in a divorce case (Case 00DR2302, In Re: Pentecoff);
- At other points in the hearing she made psychological findings and qualified them only on the basis that she, herself, was a parent and had read Dr. Spock.
- In violation of rules of evidence (Rules of Evidence 803(8): Previous court records are relevant and valid) she refused evidence from a previous court proceeding
Comment: Judge Marilyn Antrim is emotional, does not know Colorado law and is talked about poorly within the legal community. Antrim has a reputation for contradicting herself and her decisions. Antrim is openly biased and rude to defendants while court is in session. She currently has a ruling under the Colorado Appeals court that will undoubtedly be overturned and has cost the tax payers unlimited amount of money. Judge Antrim should NOT be retained and would hopefully get removed from the bench.
Comment: Judge Antrim is unabashed about refusing to uphold the law if she feels sorry for one of the parties and openly stated so. Refusing to oust parents of a disabled adult woman out of pity, she allowed them to brazenly refuse to pay a judgment, transfer property into a trust, transfer it out of a trust long enough to encumber the property and then transfer it back into the trust rendering the parents uncollectible. When told that these people sold a property for $178,000 in cash but refused to pay the judgment against them, her response was “you have to pay judgments or people get mad”. Dah? Despite all of this she openly stated that she was “reluctant” to find a fraudulent conveyance. Being in her courtroom was useless and a great travesty of justice took place. This woman should not be on the bench.
- “I find the performance review concerning Judge Cross perplexing in respect to his “alleged” demeanor toward “pro-se” litigants. Making sure they are treated fairly is pure bovine extract and reminds me of the accolades the performance committee laid on Judge Blair and Gilmore. Where would the committee get that information anyway?
In one instance, Justice Cross ruled on a motion for a case that was not even in front of him; was not ripe for a ruling ( ruled on it 5 days after it was filed with no opportunity to respond) and all the parties were not notified of the motion or ruling until after the Supreme Court got involved. And to top it all off; according to court records; he made the decision on a Sunday during the half-time of the Superbowl! (2008CV202587) Diligence or judicial comaraderie? I believe it obvious that his true agenda lies not in providing blind justice but his own prerogative of what is right or wrong.” - ” I have a special plea -“Cut Chris Cross!” He is a district 18 circuit judge who apparently interprets family court based solely on his own broken relationships. He often spoke of himself and his divorce throughout the hearing while ignoring the facts.”
- “Judge Chris Cross is a level headed judge who came up from years on the County bench. He is experienced, good demeanor and basically does a good job though not without excessive expediency in some of his decisions. Good command of legal theory and not overly bound by procedure – retain this guy.”
- Judge Mark Hannen is a dim witted procedure bound judge whose command of legal theory is missing. He threw out a very large case because of an electronic filing error.
- I URGE you to vote out Judge Hannen in the Eighteenth Judicial District. He is a woman hater! I agree with the dim witted comment above! Please do not retain him!
- In contrast to previous comments, I’ve found Judge Hannen to be a thoughtful, diligent, and fair judge with a good understanding of the law. He deserves another term.
- Judge Hannen thoughtful, diligent, fair????????????? Far from it……..he ignores the law and facts of the case! He puts women out of their homes, whether they have small children or permanent disabilities. VOTE HIM OUT!
- Judge Justin Mark Hannen was criticized for dismissing a case because the electronic filing was not filled correctly. While I strongly agree that criminals should not be released on such technicalities, the fact is such things are part of our laws in effort to protect the innocent.
The bottom line is the laywers are at fault here. They should NEVER assume that a big electronic file transmitted properly just because they “didn’t get an error”! That excuse is very much like “the dog ate my homework”. Judge Hannen performed his duty to dismiss the case.
This demonstrates that we need to change the law, not throw out judges that uphold the law.
District Judge : Honorable Kurt A. Horton
District Judge : Honorable Michael J. Spear
Comment:
Arapahoe County Judge : Honorable Addison Lloyd Adams
Arapahoe County Judge : Honorable Alex Bencze
Arapahoe County Judge : Honorable Christine Noel Chauche
Arapahoe County Judge : Honorable Anne M. Ollada
No county court judges standing for retention in Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln Counties.
NINETEENTH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Weld County)
District Judge : Honorable James F. Hartmann
District Judge : Honorable Elizabeth Beckers Strobel
District Judge : Honorable Todd Taylor
District Judge : Honorable Dinsmore Tuttle
No county court judges standing for retention in Weld County.
TWENTIETH JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Boulder County)
District Judge : Honorable D. D. Mallard
Comments:
- I would EMPHATICALLY encourage those in Judicial District 20 to vote AGAINST retaining D. D. Mallard as a district judge. Judge Mallard has a history of anti-Christian, anti-family rulings which I can attest to first hand. Please vote against her re-appointment.
- 10/21/08 – Boulder Justice Center – Judge Mallard during a hearing for a increase of Child Support…. grants a mother who was not even residing in Colorado (motioned from Florida!) to change the child’s name in an attempt to hide the child, and assisted mother in hiding the child from the father because father refused to come up with $10K that mother was demanding. Father requested that Mallard provide the father a address of where his child was be hidden, Mallard refused responding…”You don’t have a right to know”. Mallard then took the liberty during this hearing to award $8,250 in “Attorney Fees” yet refused father proof that there were even Attorney Fees…. Neither party was represented by a Attorney….
Mallard cannot & wiil not offer a reason for hiding this child, even when asked by a member of the US House Judiciary Committee. The Father is still searching to find his son years later.D.D. Mallard has a long history of these rights violating and corrupt decisions, yet continues to sit behind that bench. Not too long ago she complimented a confessed rapist on his promising future as he was plea bargaining his rape charge in court. The victim of the rape was present and must have been mortified by this Judges outrageous behavior. She must go & now. VOTE NO FOR D.D MALLARD
District Judge : Honorable Thomas Francis Mulvahill
Boulder County Judge : Honorable John F. Stavely
TWENTY-FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Mesa County)
No district court judges standing for retention.
Mesa County Judge : Honorable Craig Peter Henderson
Mesa County Judge : Honorable Gretchen B. Larson
TWENTY-SECOND JUDICIAL DISTRICT (Dolores, Montezuma Counties)
District Judge : Honorable Todd Jay Plewe
Dolores County Judge : Honorable E. Dale Boyd
No county court judges standing for retention in Montezuma County.
CCTP recommends a YES vote to retain Clear Creek County Judge Rachel Fresquez.
She is ethical & honorable in her rulings.
Re: Christopher Cross
I find the performance review concerning Judge Cross perplexing in respect to his “alleged” demeanor toward “pro-se” litigants. Making sure they are treated fairly is pure bovine and reminds me of the accolades the performance committee laid on Judge Blair and Gilmore. Where would the committee get that information anyway?
In one instance, Justice Cross ruled on a motion for a case that was not even in front of him; was not ripe for a ruling ( ruled on it 5 days after it was filed with no opportunity to respond) and all the parties were not notified of the motion or ruling until after the Supreme Court got involved. And to top it all off; according to court records; he made the decision on a Sunday during the half-time of the Superbowl! (2008CV202587) Diligence or judicial comaraderie? I believe it obvious that his true agenda lies not in providing blind justice but his own prerogative of what is right or wrong.
First, I want to thank CTBC and Mr Arnold for the excellent and tireless work in their efforts to bring some of the corruption out of the shadows. The Colorado justice system is run like a country club. It stands to reason then why Thomas Jefferson was so concerned with this branch of government and it’s fall into eventual putrefaction.
I happen to believe that Ben Coats is one of the better judges on our Supreme Court; or at least he doesn’t seem to have hidden agendas like his senior associates Bender and Hobbs (and their cronies Martinez and Mullarkey, one of which was told to leave for illicit acts (as was Jean Dubofsky) and the other who traded her morals for a continual violation of her sworn duty to uphold the Constitution). The jury is still out on the other members.
And in support of this charade we have the performance commission. Their true colors were evident with their unanimous support of Blair and Gilmore who were both thrown out of office despite the false encomium of the committee.
And now it looks as if they want to take a cheap shot at Coats by insinuating that he is being disrespectful because he has disagreed with those that have sold their robes to the highest bidder. Thanks to CTBC, I have read all the dissenting opinions of Justice Coats and each one only points out the obvious Constitutional violations upheld by his associates. If that is being disrespectful; then more power to him. I challenge the Committee to back up their baseless statements.
Again, the performance committee is nothing but a rubber stamp with it’s own agenda of covering up for certain members of the “country club”. Hopefully, Mr. Arnold will continue with his transparent and real review of our judges actions and help rid our judicial branch of these shameless culprits.
Thanks again CTBC.
Judge Marilyn Antrim is emotional, does not know Colorado law and is talked about poorly within the legal community. Antrim has a reputation for contradicting herself and her decisions. Antrim is openly biased and rude to defendants while court is in session. She currently has a ruling under the Colorado Appeals court that will undoubtedly be overturned and has cost the tax payers unlimited amount of money. Judge Antrim should NOT be retained and would hopefully get removed from the bench.
Thank you for the synopsis of each judge in the 18th. I found it very helpful.
I really appreciate the info i received on the judges. I either don’t vote on judges or vote them in or out only if i get info from people or media as how to vote for some reason or other. Info i get is rare. I welcome your email and hope you do it again. I’m glad to receive it now in time for early voting because that is usually when we vote. Thanks again.
I don’t know how Judge Robert Rand of the Eighth Judicial District could possibly be recommended for retention.
I know of a case where he signed a search warrant to send the SWAT Team into a familie’s home because the occupant used more electricity than his neighbors did and he kept his blinds closed. The police had decided from that “evidence” that they should check his trash and they found marijuana stems. So, they raided his house.
1. Using electricity in any amount is not evidence/probable cause to search anyone’s home. There are many legal reasons to use more electricity than your neighbor.
2. At the same time, there were break-ins in Boulder and the authorities advised residents to keep their blinds closed. It is not illegal to close your blinds and that is not probable cause.
3. There were stems in his trash and he was licensed to grow Medical Marijuana but checking that out would have prevented the police from having an excuse to raid his house.
After the raid, having found nothing illegal, the police thanked him for his efforts to be legal and they left as if nothing had happened.
The attorneys who have seen this warrant ridicule it.
Whether you are for or against Medical Marijuana, the greater crime here is the violation of someone’s Civil Rights. The Fourth Amendment has been violated by the Judge and I suspect this is not the only incident.
Vote Judge Rand out so he has more time to study the Constitution.
Sincerely,
Ross Busby
What do the letters mean underneath the pictures of the Court of Appeal judges. It looks like all of the letters are x, O or M, but no indication of what they mean?
The rating scale for the Appeals Court judges (the “X, O, M” rating) appears at the top of the scorecard.
CTBC’s summary rating: X=strike against rule of law; O=upheld rule of law; M=Mixed
I would EMPHATICALLY encourage those in Judicial District 20 to vote AGAINST retaining D. D. Mallard as a district judge. Judge Mallard has a history of anti-Christian, anti-family rulings which I can attest to first hand. Please vote against her re-appointment.
Christie Bachmeyer Phillips is the most corrupt judge. She punishes decent, caring parents and hurts children. She is NOT stunning smart, she could not even pay attention during my hearing and even said she forgot why she was there, to decide what? She makes parents pay the most child support possible and she does not care about your rights to parent your own children. She is evil and is not interested in the truth, she takes one side and severly punishes the other parent. She does NOT care about the children’s best interests. She is not fair, lawyers have told me how awful she has been to their clients as well. I have no idea how she got a favorable review. She is morally corrupt and should not have the power to hurt families.
Why is there no evaluation for the 8th district judges? Maybe you guys don’t have enough money but at this critical time in our history, I would have liked to have seen a much better service provided for finding out about all these judges.
Stephanie A. –
we, too, would have liked to provide (or facilitate provision of) a more extensive evaluation of judges at the district and county level, and have been trying to raise awareness of this issue for the last few years.
Unfortunately, CTBC is a small organization which simply lacks the resources to evaluate ALL of the nearly 100 judges on the Colorado ballot EACH election.
We have focused our efforts at the statewide level (appellate courts) while providing a forum for concerned citizens, law enforcement sources and local civic organizations to comment on judges at the district and county level.
Please encourage those you may know (local law enforcement, activists, or other citizens) with first-hand knowledge of judges in your area to submit comments via E-mail or website.
All Larimer County citizens need to be aware of the abuses that are occurring in the legal system in Larimer County courts. On December 19, 2011, Judge Julie Kunce Field, of the 8th Judicial District, issued Permanent Orders that tore a child from a nurturing environment created by his mother. The child was then placed in custody of the biological father whom he had never lived with. The mother was never accused of any transgressions. The abuse of this child was a means of punishing his mother who had exposed corruption in our local government.
In addition to issuing these egregious orders, Judge Julie Fields, repeatedly ignored DUE PROCESS. Here are just a few incidents that occurred in her courtroom. When the biological father demanded custody of the child, the mother was surprised and alarmed because the court had failed to notify her. This Judge disregarded the Court’s failure to serve the mother with the Permanent Orders of December 21st, as was the DUE PROCESS. Yet, despite not having the Notice of Service, the mother was arrested and was not allowed a contempt hearing. Also, Judge Field had granted the father permission to go to the mother’s home to retrieve the child even though she had heard testimony that the mother was fearful for her and her son’s safety at the hands of the father. Once again, against DUE PROCESS, there was no order for a Batterer’s Assessment of this testimony.
According to the Colorado Rules of Civil Procedure, it was Judge Field’s responsibility to provide a fair trial for both parties. But once more against DUE PROCESS, the mother was not allowed to call witnesses, even though she had properly subpoenaed and served the exact same witnesses as the father. She was only allowed to cross-examine them, which meant she was restricted to question only on what was testified during direct examination. She also was not allowed to be a witness. The only thing she was allowed to do was make an 18 minute statement at the end of an eight hour hearing. Judge Field’s violation of law and court order continue to this day. When citizens showed up in support of the mother at a court hearing, on September 13th, this judge abandoned her courtroom without a call for Recess or Adjournment.
How and why can this happen to a loving mother who has not been accused of any wrongdoing? She was politically active and had exposed corruption and agendas in our local government. So those who opposed her actions wanted to make her pay and Judge Fields is their puppet. Justice and our legal system should be above such matters. Faith in our court system needs to be restored. Please vote against the retention of Judge Julie Fields. She is seriously eroding the Integrity of our courts.
20th Judicial District – D.D. Mallard
10/21/08 – Boulder Justice Center – Judge Mallard during a hearing for a increase of Child Support….grants a mother who was not even residing in Colorado (motioned from Florida!) to change the child’s name in an attempt to hide the child, and assisted mother in hiding the child from the father because father refused to come up with $10K that mother was demanding. Father requested that Mallard provide the father a address of where his child was be hidden, Mallard refused responding…”You don’t have a right to know”. Mallard then took the liberty during this hearing to award $8,250 in “Attorney Fees” yet refused father proof that there were even Attorney Fees….Neither party was represented by a Attorney….
Mallard cannot & wiil not offer a reason for hiding this child, even when asked by a member of the US House Judiciary Committee. The Father is still searching to find his son years later.
D.D. Mallard has a long history of these rights violating and corrupt decisions, yet continues to sit behind that bench. Not too long ago she complimented a confessed rapist on his promising future as he was plea bargaining his rape charge in court. The victim of the rape was present and must have been mortified by this Judges outrageous behavior. She must go & now. VOTE NO FOR D.D MALLARD
I URGE you to vote out Judge Hannen in the Eighteenth Judicial District. He is a woman hater! I agree with the dim witted comment above! Please do not retain him!
Judge Christie Phillips is the most corrupt judge. She punishes decent, caring parents and hurts children. She is NOT stunning smart, she could not even pay attention during my hearing and even said she forgot why she was there, to decide what? She makes parents pay the most child support possible and she does not care about your rights to parent your own children. She is evil and is not interested in the truth, she takes one side and severly punishes the other parent. She does NOT care about the children’s best interests. She is not fair, lawyers have told me how awful she has been to their clients as well. I have no idea how she got a favorable review. She is morally corrupt and should not have the power to hurt families.
Please vote out Judge Christie Phillips of Jefferson County. She did not hear my witnesses or care about my evidence. It was clear she had already made up her mind. She is very biased and does NOT follow the law. She hurts the innocent in her court room and she is a very evil person without a conscience. She needs to be voted out. PLEASE VOTE NO!
It would be helpful to easily see the Judges party affiliation
John –
in Colorado, judges do not list their party affiliation (retention elections are nonpartisan, since judges are supposed to be and are officially – “apolitical”).
It’s possible to look up the party affiliation of the governor who appointed them to office, or in rare cases research to find out the party affiliation of individual judges, but that’s at best a very unreliable guide to actual judicial performance, since some very good (even “conservative”) judges have been appointed by Democrats, and some bad judges have been appointed by Republicans.
Clear The Bench Colorado reviews and rates judicial performance on whether or not a judge has consistently ruled to uphold the Constitution and the rule of law – in other words, acted as a fair and impartial referee – since we believe that is the proper role of the judiciary and what makes a good judge.
Christine Phillips is rude, inconsiderate. Was in attentive, didn’t look at the case in front of her with an open mind. Didn’t see or care to see the one sided opinion of the “professional” with his own opinion. Ignored damning evidence against one side and continued to seemingly be in-compassionate towards the true victims in the case. I feel bad for all parties who come before her. Everyone looses, the only people who win are the courts, because no one is even closely happy to the compromise she sets up and they then must return to court to try and rectify her wrongs. The epitomy of red tape, corruption. If she ever walked a mile in any of the people on the other side of the benches shoes she would want to kill herself.
If Judge Phillips is a shining example of judges in Jefferson County then every one of them needs to be removed. She showed up in family court without a clue as to what she was supposed to be ruling on. It was clear that she had a special relationship with one of the attorneys and made sure everything was ruled in his favor at the expense of the children and the innocent party in spite of all the evidence to the contrary. She punished an innocent mother for fighting for her family and their constitutional rights. Her ruling purposely destroyed lives and ignored all the facts in the case. The ruling was so full of mistakes it could have been written by a five year old. She exemplifies the corruption that is rampant in our court system. VOTE NO on Phillips and all the other corrupt judges.
Judge Christine Phillips should not be voted back. I found her to be very corrupt and unfair in her court room. The father of my children lied about almost everything in that room, we even had proof showing most of the lies and still she favored with him. The safety of my children are at risk now because of her actions. Please Vote her out, she has no business being in family law.
Judge Phillips in Jefferson County is extremely dishonest. She baked cookies for her jurors and then brought in bagels on another day, it would appear to sway them . Although it sounds “nice” it is very unprofessional and highly inappropriate. I only took notice of this after also being at a friends hearing in family court where Judge Phillips also presided. There were 10 of us there to support our friend and no one could believe the ruling Judge Phillips made. No decent, intelligent person could ever arrive at that conclusion if they were present for the hearing. It’s no wonder Judge Phillips gave the parties the ruling days after the hearing as there might have been an uproar in the court room. She is a disgrace to the justice system. Her ruling was so severe that she destroyed our friends life and for absolutely no reason. Judge Phillips denied a good mother her children and took away 65% of her income to punish her. Judge Phillips is a heartless, biased judge who is criminal in her actions. Do not retain this horrendous excuse for a judge, vote no to put an end to her injustice.
Very helpfull. I hope this can be expaded to include good summaries on all judges as relates to the constitution.
Judge Hannen thoughtful, diligent, fair????????????? Far from it……..he ignores the law and facts of the case! He puts women out of their homes, whether they have small children or permanent disabilities. VOTE HIM OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Between Judge Hannen and my attorneys at Litvak Litvak Mehrtens and Epstein, my life has been destroyed. Married 27 years, and deemed permanently disabled during my dissolution, receiving only SSDI income of 1835.00 mo, I was awarded only $500 mo. in maintenance, even though husband earned $11,000 mo. Judge Hannen gave me no award for my $66,000 in Litvak attorney fees, and I left court with $73,000 in debt, consisting of my attorney fees, expert fees, and medical expenses. Husband had diverted large amounts of his salary to a private bank account, closed joint credit cards, cutting off my access to funds, during the dissolution. I entered the evidence on all these issues, and Judge Hannen ignored every shred of evidence, couldn’t care less that the Social Security Administration stated in their Findings & Conclusions that I could never work again, and sided with my husband, who lied for 2 days during the Permanent Orders hearing. Judge Hannen ordered the marital home to be sold, even though I had poured all my inheritance into the home, making improvements for my comfort, after my spinal injury and subsequent 3 spinal surgeries. The end result of all this to me, was an attorney lien on my home, and tens of thousands of dollars collected from MY proceeds at closing, by my attorneys. Neither the judge or attorneys who lost my case could care less about putting me out of my home, knowing I had a permanent disability. My ex husband had the ability to pay! You call this justice? I think I’ll write a book!
Regarding Judge the review said, “Judge Shakes has won awards for his efforts to advance the rule of law in Iraq and has published his work in this area.” That sounds great on the surface. Richard Randall expressed how the judges were in regards to the Constitution. My problem with Judge Shakes is that he is trying to advance the rule of law in a muslim country. One that is now becoming overcome by pro-Sharia law muslims. What will he rule if Sharia law were to ever become an issue in El Paso County? The Constitution cannot coexist with another legal system. And why were we in Iraq trying to spread the rule of law? How did the Judge do this? We were in Iraq to nation build and to implement “Democracy when we are not a democratic nation and where muslim’s ideology do not fit with this system. Also I cannot support a Judge who is biased to the already biased DA’s.
All Douglas County Citizens should be aware of the misconduct related to Judge Cross. As an observer not involved in any case that he is sitting on, I am completely shocked by the reasoning of this individual. Clearly this Judge is either extremely biased against women and children or is completely incompetent regarding the understanding of Colorado Family Law. He upholds parenting alienation against the mother in many situations. I would ask the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline to look into the decisions that he has been making to determine how many women and children have suffered because of his extreme biases, misconduct and incompetence. I have witnessed that he has allowed children to be permanently taken from their mothers who have no issues with their own misconduct (i.e. no drugs, no violence, etc.) , disallowed their ability to engage in supervised visitation with these children (it is my understanding that even men who are in jail for killing their wives get supervised visitation with their children) and does not enforce the fathers to follow court orders that are already in place. He has waived years of back child support for the fathers with no reasoning, enforced unreasonable amounts of child support to come from the mothers after taking their children from them and does not enforce the father’s responsibility to provide their financial records/information to base child support court orders on. This is a man who does not care for the family system, does not have the best interest of children in his mind and certainly does not feel compelled to follow Colorado State Law. I am completely disgusted by the Colorado Judicial system at this point and wonder who will uphold our children when they are in need? Who really has a love for the law, for our constitution and the State of Colorado values? DO NOT RETAIN JUDGE CROSS.
The liberal Boulder Weekly had a “Voter Guide Endorsement” that was apparently very liberal. They recommended that 20th district judges Mallard and Mulvahill be retained, and Boulder that County Judge Stavely be replaced. So, we voted the opposite as follows:
20th Dist: NO on Mallard (also per comments above)
20th Dist: NO on Mulvahill
Boulder County: YES on Stavely
Not a very robust approach, but the best we could find.
Postscript: the above comment references the October 18, 2012 publication of the Boulder Weekly, page 11. There are many other candidates listed too. Hope that helps!
Postscript: the above comment references the October 18, 2012 publication of the Boulder Weekly, page 11. There are many other candidates listed too. Hope that helps!
Delchi –
the Boulder Weekly simply parroted the “official” recommendations published in the “Blue Book” (ironic for an “alternative” weekly to meekly accept the authority of “the man” one would think).
Unfortunate, since I actually met with the reporter from the Boulder Weekly, explained CTBC’s methodology and reviews, and although he seemed to “get it” none of that made it into the Weekly’s story.
CTBC
Judge Justin Mark Hannen was criticized for dismissing a case because the electronic filing was not filled correctly. While I strongly agree that criminals should not be released on such technicalities, the fact is such things are part of our laws in effort to protect the innocent.
The bottom line is the laywers are at fault here. They should NEVER assume that a big electronic file transmitted properly just because they “didn’t get an error”! That excuse is very much like “the dog ate my homework”. Judge Hannen performed his duty to dismiss the case.
This demonstrates that we need to change the law, not throw out judges that uphold the law.
Judge Cisneros (4th JD) is a liberal, activist judge legislating from the bench.
She puts her own biases and opinions before the law, and often lets dangerous criminals off the hook if they match her social and political views. Vote this one out.
Also, the blue book got it backwards on El Paso County Judge Hansen. She’s one of the few county judges that actually get it right on both criminal and civil cases. Keep her.