Judge John Scott was appointed to the Lake County Court Bench on March 24, 2023. He graduated from the University of Colorado in Boulder with a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish in 1987. He attended law school while on active duty in the United States Marine Corps and graduated from the University of Denver College of Law in 1995. Judge Scott practiced for many years in Denver and the front range. In 2015, he began to transition his solo practice to Leadville and the surrounding mountain communities. He has lived in Leadville full-time since 2018 and practiced primarily in the area of criminal defense. In his spare time, he participates in several ultra distance running events each year. Judge Scott is a veteran of the First Gulf War (Operation Desert Storm) where he served as an artillery officer in the lead ground attack into Kuwait and of Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he served as the Chief Prosecutor for the Marines in Iraq in 2004. He retired from the United States Marine Corps Reserves as a Lieutenant Colonel in 2010. He was appointed to the County Court bench, effective April 18, 2023.