The federal court system will make it a policy to hold criminal hearings and trials related to Southwest Colorado in Durango.
“The designation will mean that a detained defendant will be held locally, and that all hearings and the trial, presumptively, will be held in that location,” Clerk of Colorado District Court Jeffrey P. Colwell said in a news release. “In the past, residents of the Western Slope, including members of the Southern Ute Indian Tribe and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, have had to travel to Denver, more than 350 miles away, for hearings and trials.”
Durango has had a U.S. District courtroom in Bodo Industrial Park for more than a decade.
“We have periodically had trials there, but it’s been very sporadic, and most often, the trials have been moved to Denver because that courtroom is not conducive to jury trials and moving jurors in and out,” Colwell said.
Eighteen months ago, the U.S. District Court established a pilot program, where Magistrate Judge David L. West and a visiting district judge have handled more civil and criminal cases, Colwell said. Trials have been held here on a more consistent and continual basis, with a more established formal structure. Some criminal trials still were held in Denver, and many civil trials will continue to be tried in Denver.
“The trials will have to make sense to be held in Durango, with input from the U.S. attorney and U.S. Marshal’s Office, as well as the defendant’s circumstances,” Colwell said. “If the crime was committed in Denver, and they fled to Durango, the trial would still be held in Denver.”
Holding the trials in Durango will require a magistrate judge to designate a case as a Durango case, which requires a finding that the defendant, witnesses or events surrounding the charges are tied to Durango or nearby communities. Once the case is thus-designated, U.S. District of Colorado Chief Judge Marcia S. Krieger will preside over Durango cases that go to trial, at least through the end of the year.
“Having just one judge covering cases in Durango rather than rotating judges coming down every other month should make it easier for all parties,” Colwell said.
La Plata County recently signed a 10-year lease with the U.S. General Services Administration for space in the La Plata County Courthouse. The space will undergo significant renovations, including office space for West and the visiting district judge, as well as a courtroom more suitable for grand juries and jury trials. Renovations are expected to start in early 2016 and be done by the end of 2016.
Cases will continue to be held in the Bodo Park courtroom on Sheppard Drive until the new space is available, Colwell said.
“The pilot project has gone so well, we’re opening a new U.S. District Court in Grand Junction, too,” he said.
Grand Junction’s court will be held in the Wayne N. Aspinall Federal Building and Courthouse, which holds the distinction of being one of the most energy-efficient and sustainable historic buildings in the country, Colwell said. Senior Judge John Kane will preside over trials there for the remainder of 2015.
abutler@ durangoherald.com
