Colorado Court of Appeals to hear arguments in Lakewood

Monday, March 11, 2024
LAKEWOOD, Colo. – A division of the Colorado Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments at Green Mountain High School in Lakewood on Thursday, March 14, 2024, before an audience of high school students. Limited seating for the public will be available.

The event is part of the Colorado Judicial Department’s Courts in the Community, the outreach program the Colorado Supreme Court and Court of Appeals initiated on Law Day (May 1), 1986. The Courts in the Community program was developed to give high school students firsthand experience in how the Colorado judicial system works and illustrate how disputes are resolved in a democratic society. These are not mock proceedings; the judges will hear arguments in real cases and, later, issue opinions in those cases. The court generally issues opinions within a few weeks of arguments.

The 22 judges of the Colorado Court of Appeals sit in divisions of three to hear cases. The division that will hear cases at Green Mountain High School comprises Judges Craig R. Welling, David H. Yun, and Katharine E. Lum.

The two cases to be heard at Green Mountain High School are:

• 23CA0364, Ashley Bullington v. Courtney Barela: Ashley Bullington was injured in a 2016 car accident in Greeley, and a jury in 2022 awarded her nearly $24,000 in damages from Courtney Barela to cover her medical expenses. But the jury declined to award any noneconomic damages (for pain and suffering or for future impairment). Ms. Bullington has asked the Court of Appeals to order a new trial, arguing that the trial judge made several mistakes that prejudiced her case. Ms. Bullington’s attorney argued in court filings that the trial judge gave improper instructions to the jury on how to consider her need to delay a particular pain treatment while she was pregnant or breast feeding; that the jury failed to follow the court’s instructions in deciding against awarding any noneconomic damages; and that the court improperly decided not to allow the jury to hear testimony from her expert witness, a physician life-care planner, because that witness was disclosed too late in the trial process. Attorneys for Ms. Barela said in court filings that they disagree with each of those arguments, saying Ms. Bullington’s objections really boil down to her disagreement with the jury’s analysis of the evidence, which they argued was fair and adequate.

• 23CA1143, The People of the State of Colorado v. Brian Saltzman: Brian Saltzman, at the time a detective with the Palmer Lake Police Department, was convicted by a jury of misdemeanor third-degree assault, prohibited use of a weapon and reckless endangerment after he fired a gun during a party at his house, hitting a guest in the leg. Mr. Saltzman, who was sentenced to 45 days in jail and two years of probation, has asked the Court of Appeals to reverse his conviction and order a new trial. In court filings, Mr. Saltzman’s attorney argued that certain evidence was obtained in an illegal search and that the trial judge should not have admitted that evidence. Mr. Saltzman’s attorney at trial argued that police obtained evidence during an unauthorized “protective sweep” of Mr. Saltzman’s home that officers conducted after arriving there the night of the party. In its court filings, the prosecution argued that the trial judge’s decision was correct, but also that if there was any error, it was harmless because many witnesses testified that Mr. Saltzman had fired a gun, and he admitted firing his gun in contending that he was acting negligently but not recklessly (which could have resulted in a felony conviction) when he fired the weapon.

Proceedings at Green Mountain High School, 13175 W. Green Mountain Dr., Lakewood, CO 80228, will begin at 10 a.m. on Thursday, March 14, 2024

Question-and-answer sessions, during which the students may ask questions of the attorneys, will follow the arguments in each case. After the second argument, students also will have the opportunity to participate in a question-and-answer session with the Court of Appeals judges.

There will be a limited number of seats for the public. Audio recordings from the two arguments will be available online within one to two days of the arguments at http://www.courts.state.co.us/Courts/Court_Of_Appeals/Oral_Arguments/Index.cfm.

Editor’s Note:

The documents related to these two cases are available at: https://www.courts.state.co.us/Courts/Education/Materials.cfm?s=Spring&y=2024  

Additional information on the Courts in the Community program is available at: http://www.courts.state.co.us/Courts/Education/Community.cfm

News media organizations interested in recording the arguments may contact Jon Sarché at the State Court Administrator’s Office (contact information below). The following pages contain information about expanded media coverage.

We will be reserving seats for journalists. Please contact Jon Sarché at jon.sarche@judicial.state.co.us or at 720-625-5811 if you plan to attend.