| Judge Evaluations Available on Internet August 5 |
Monday, August 4, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 4, 2014
CONTACT: Kent J. Wagner, Executive Director, State Commission on Judicial Peformance, 303-928-7779
Judge Evaluations Available on Internet August 5
Evaluations of 146 judges standing for retention in the 2014 general election will be made public online on Aug. 5, 2014, and will be mailed in the fall to every active registered voter household in Colorado in the “Blue Book.”
The evaluations were completed by the State Commission on Judicial Performance and local judicial district performance commissions, each of which consists of six non-attorney members and four attorney members. The non-partisan commissions are charged with providing voters with fair, responsible and constructive evaluations of individual judges seeking retention, and providing judges with useful information concerning their performance. The volunteer commissioners are appointed by the Colorado Chief Justice, Governor, President of the Senate and Speaker of the House.
Commission members take this work seriously and strive to provide an honest, fair and reliable performance assessment of every judge standing for retention. Citizens who take the time to review the information provided by the commissions will find they are more informed about a judge’s performance as they cast their votes in the November election. Those votes will ultimately determine if the judges appearing on the ballot are retained in office for another term.
The judicial performance commissions evaluate judges on a wide range of criteria, including integrity, legal knowledge, communication skills, judicial temperament, and administrative performance. To do this, commissions review information from several sources: written opinions and decisions, caseload statistics, interviews, courtroom observations, judges’ self-evaluations, and independent surveys. For the 2014 Judicial Performance Survey Report, surveys were sent to more than 130,000 people having some involvement with the judges, including prosecutors, public defenders, and private attorneys, litigants, jurors, crime victims, law enforcement officers, court employees, court interpreters, and probation officers. Commissioners also reviewed the results of interim survey results from past years.
The commissions then produce a narrative for each judge with a recommendation of “retain,” “do not retain,” or “no opinion.” The narrative, recommendation and complete statistical survey results will be first published Tuesday, Aug. 5, on the Office of Judicial Performance Evaluation Web site at http://www.coloradojudicialperformance.gov/review.cfm?year=2014. The narrative and recommendation for each judge standing for retention will be included in the Blue Book, an informational booklet published by the state Legislative Council to inform voters with the judicial evaluation information as well as analysis and arguments for and against every statewide ballot measure. The Blue Book will be mailed to voter households in early fall.
Editor’s Note: Below are the media contacts for each judicial performance commission.
Colorado Office of Judicial Performance Evaluation
Contact: Kent J. Wagner, 303-928-7779
State Commission (Supreme Court and Court of Appeals)
Contact: Heather Hanneman, 303-573-1900
1st Judicial District (Gilpin, Jefferson Counties)
Contact: Gary Polidori, 303-936-3300
2nd Judicial District (Denver – County and District Court)
Contact: Dan Recht, 303-573-1900
3rd Judicial District (Huerfano, Las Animas Counties)
Contact: Dixie Newnam, 719-846-1800
4th Judicial District (El Paso, Teller Counties)
Contact: T.C. Dantzler, 719-266-3689
5th Judicial District (Clear Creek, Eagle, Lake, Summit Counties)
Contact: Thomas Marmins, 970-668-2102
6th Judicial District (Archuleta, La Plata, San Juan Counties)
Contact: Nick Palmer, 970-385-9000
7th Judicial District (Delta, Gunnison, Hinsdale, Montrose, Ouray, San Miguel Counties)
Contact: Anna Cooling, 970-497-2204
8th Judicial District (Jackson, Larimer Counties)
Contact: Sean Rutledge, 970-669-2864
9th Judicial District (Garfield, Pitkin, Rio Blanco Counties)
Contact: Carol Craven, 970-963-3733
10th Judicial District (Pueblo County)
Contact: Henry Geisel, 719-543-7243
11th Judicial District (Chaffee, Custer, Fremont, Park Counties)
Contact: Chip Cutler, 719-539-5017
12th Judicial District (Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache Counties)
Contact: Carla Gomez, 719-850-1072
13th Judicial District (Kit Carson, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, Yuma Counties)
Contact: Jeremy Weathers, 970-630-5886
14th Judicial District (Grand, Moffat, Routt Counties)
Contact: Lynn Abbott, 970-870-6673
15th Judicial District (Baca, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Prowers Counties)
Contact: Susan Crites, 719-688-6365
Jo Dorenkamp, 719-734-5034
16th Judicial District (Bent, Crowley, Otero Counties)
Contact: Samme Ormiston, 719-469-8922
17th Judicial District (Adams, Broomfield Counties)
Contact: Loren Brown, 303-451-0300
18th Judicial District (Arapahoe, Douglas, Elbert, Lincoln Counties)
Contact: Susan M. Thornton, 303-798-0844
19th Judicial District (Weld County)
Contact: Sandra Owens, 970-397-7728
20th Judicial District (Boulder County)
Contact: Patrick Haines, 720-318-6883
21st Judicial District (Mesa County)
Contact: Susan Redmond, 970-250-4984
22nd Judicial District (Dolores, Montezuma Counties)
Contact: Diana Buza, 970-570-6131
Jim Shaner, 970-565-8699