Justia Colorado Supreme Court Opinion Summaries

A jury convicted petitioner Anthony Edwin Marsh of sexually assaulting three of his granddaughters and possessing more than twenty images depicting child pornography. Marsh appealed, and the court of appeals affirmed his conviction. The Colorado Supreme Court granted certiorari to consider whether the presence of temporary internet cache files stored on a person’s hard drive can constitute evidence of “knowing possession” as used in Colorado’s child pornography statute, section 18-6-403, C.R.S. (2016). First, the Court held that when a computer user seeks out and views child pornography on the internet, he possesses the images he views. The evidence presented at trial established that Marsh’s cache contained images that a computer user had previously viewed on the web browser. The Court therefore concluded that the internet cache images qualified as relevant evidence that Marsh had previously viewed, and thus possessed, those images. Even if the trial court improperly admitted the forensic interviewers’ testimony as lay opinion, the Supreme Court concluded that error was harmless. Therefore, the Court affirmed the court of appeals’ judgment in its entirety. View "Marsh v. Colorado" on Justia Law

The Colorado medical marijuana constitutional amendment required law enforcement officers to return medical marijuana seized from individuals later acquitted of state drug charges. The federal Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”) prohibited the distribution of marijuana, with limited exceptions. The question in this case was whether the return provision of the Colorado Constitution was preempted by the federal CSA. In a split decision, the court of appeals held the return provision was not preempted. The Colorado Supreme Court reversed, finding that the CSA did not preempt state law on the same subject matter unless there was a positive conflict between the state and federal laws such that the two could not consistently stand together. The Colorado Court reasoned that because state law enforcement officers were returning marijuana, they were indeed “distributing” it. This constituted a “positive conflict” between the laws. The Court found that the Colorado provision was thus preempted and rendered void. View "Colorado v. Crouse" on Justia Law

In 2012, police arrested respondent Alexander Wolf after a search of his car netted various narcotics, including less than one ounce of marijuana. Respondent was ultimately charged with possession, and pertinent to this appeal, possession of less than two ounces of marijuana. Before respondent’s case was submitted to a jury, Colorado passed Amendment 64, legalizing possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for personal use. The jury found respondent guilty of possessing the marijuana, and he was sentenced to twenty-one days in jail and two years of probation. Respondent appealed, arguing that his conviction for possessing what ultimately was less than one ounce of marijuana should be vacated because Amendment 64 legalized possession of less than one ounce of marijuana before he has been convicted. A divided court of appeals vacated the marijuana possession conviction and sentence. After review, the Colorado Supreme Court determined that Amendment 64 deprived the State of the power to continue to prosecute individuals for possession of one ounce of marijuana after the Amendment became effective. View "Colorado v. Wolf" on Justia Law

In 2010, defendant Brandi Russell and her husband brought their infant to a hospital with a broken leg. Worried that the child may have been abused, a doctor contacted a social worker, who then contacted the Department of Social Services. The social worker interviewed defendant, and worried she was on drugs. A court order was obtained requiring defendant to submit to a drug test. The results revealed defendant has used amphetamine, marijuana and methamphetamine. Police obtained a warrant, searched defendant's home, and found drug paraphernalia. The State charged defendant with child abuse resulting in serious injury, and possession of controlled substances. A jury acquitted defendant of the child abuse charge, but convicted her on possession charges. Defendant appealed. The Supreme Court found that defendant would have been convicted on the methamphetamine charge with or without a police officer's testimony, so any error in admitting that testimony as lay testimony was harmless. With respect to defendant's possession of marijuana conviction, the Supreme Court found that Amendment 64 to the Colorado Constitution deprived the State of the power to continue to prosecute cases where there was a nonfinal conviction for possession of less than one ounce of marijuana pending on direct appeal when the Amendment became effective. The Court affirmed the court of appeals as to both issues. View "Russell v. Colorado" on Justia Law

The issue this case presented for the Supreme Court's review centered on whether Amendment 64 to the Colorado Constitution (legalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana) deprived the State the power to continue to prosecute cases where there was a nonfinal conviction for possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, and where there was a pending right to appeal (exercised by filing a notice of appeal) at the time the Amendment became effective. "In case a statute is repealed or rendered inoperative, no further proceedings can be had to enforce it in pending prosecutions." The Colorado Supreme Court found that Amendment 64 rendered inoperative the pertinent language of the statute under which the defendant in this case had been arrested, because Amendment 64 legalized what the applicable statute had prohibited. As such, the Court concluded that Amendment 64 indeed deprived the State of its power to continue to prosecute cases where there was a nonfinal conviction for possession of less than one ounce of marijuana and where there was a pending right to appeal at the time the Amendment became effective. View "Colorado v. Boyd" on Justia Law

In 2015, Lisa Grimicko (Wife) filed a petition for dissolution of marriage. In it, she petitioned for spousal maintenance and an equitable division of the marital assets and debts. Wife sought information from Nickifor Gromicko's (Husband) employer, International Association of Certified Home Inspectors ( InterNACHI). Wife alleged that Husband founded the company in 2004, and served as InterNACHI's Chief Operating Officer. Although Husband initially indicated he had no objection to making certain InterNACHI records available, he subsequently refused to produce them, contending that he was merely an employee of the company, and had no authority to provide the records. Husband's counsel, who also served as InterNACHI's general counsel, filed a brief on behalf of the company regarding access to the requested records. The trial court made no ruling on the records request. In response, Wife served a subpoena, and InterNACHI moved to quash the subpoena. In its motion, InterNACHI argued that many of the documents were privileged and confidential, and irrelevant to the dissolution proceedings. Wife maintained that the records were relevant to both spousal maintenance and division of marital property. The trial court denied InterNACHI's motion, and ultimately ordered InterNACHI to produce the records. Finding that the trial court did not take an active role in managing Wife's discovery request, the Colorado Supreme Court reversed the trial court's order and remanded for the trial court to make findings about the appropriate scope of discovery in light of the reasonable needs of the case. View "In re Marriage of Gromicko" on Justia Law

The State filed an interlocutory appeal of a district court's suppression order. The court suppressed a firearm that Denver Police seized from a car in which defendant Randiray Delacruz was a passenger. After review, the Supreme Court concluded the firearm was discovered during a valid protective search of the vehicle in light of the circumstances confronting the officer at the time of the search. Accordingly, the Court reversed the district court's order and remanded this matter for further proceedings. View "Colorado v. Delacruz" on Justia Law

The issue this matter presented for the Supreme Court's review centered on a discovery dispute between plaintiff Stephen Rumnock and defendant American Family Mutual Insurance Company. After being ordered to produce documents that Rumnock requested, American Family disclosed some and simultaneously moved for a protective order. The motion sought to preclude Rumnock from using or disclosing the documents (alleged to be trade secrets) outside of this litigation. The trial court granted in part and denied in part, ordering that the alleged trade secrets not be shared with American Family's competitors, but declining to further limit their use. American Family petitioned the Colorado Supreme Court to direct the trial court to enter the protective order. The Supreme Court declined to do so, finding that American Family failed to present to the trial court evidence demonstrating the documents were trade secrets or otherwise confidential commercial information. View "In re Rumnock v. Anschutz" on Justia Law

The City of Aurora was the sole owner of the capital stock of Busk-Ivanhoe, Inc., which owned a one-half interest in water rights decreed in 1928 to the Busk-Ivanhoe System for supplemental irrigation in the Arkansas River Basin by Garfield County District Court (in Civil Action 2621, known as the "2621 Decree"). The decree contained no reference to storage of exported water on the eastern slope prior to its decreed use for supplemental irrigation in the Arkansas River Basin. Nevertheless, water decreed to the Busk-Ivanhoe System has been stored in reservoirs before put to beneficial use. In 1987, Busk-Ivanhoe began to put its water rights to use in Aurora. Busk-Ivanhoe did not file an application to change the type and place of use of these rights until 2009. The water court for Water Division 2 approved Busk-Ivanhoe's change application allow use of the rights within Aurora's municipal system. The rulings were confirmed in 2014. The issues raised in this appeal centered on the water court's quantification of the water rights to be changed under the application. After review, the Supreme Court concluded: (1) the water court erred when it concluded that storage of the Busk-Ivanhoe rights on the eastern slope prior to use was lawful; (2) because the storage of the water rights was unlawful, the water court erred in concluding the volumes of exported water paid as rental fees for storage in its historic consumptive use quantification of the water rights; and (3) the water court erred in concluding it was required to exclude the twenty-two years of undecreed use of the water rights from the representative study period. The water court's 2014 order was reversed and the matter remanded for further proceedings. View "Grand Valley Water Users Ass'n v. Busk-Ivanhoe, Inc." on Justia Law

Alamosa County police officers applied for and received a warrant to search Lonnie Cooper’s residence and vehicles on his property for illegal drugs and other items associated with the sale of illegal drugs. The Colorado Supreme Court reviewed an interlocutory appeal to answer whether an officer could reasonable and in good faith rely on a warrant when the warrant affidavit was devoid of specific dates, but established a long, ongoing pattern of drug trafficking from a home. After review of the specifics of this case, the Supreme Court concluded there was enough evidence in the warrant affidavit of an ongoing drug trafficking operation that an officer could have a reasonable, good faith belief that the warrant was proper. The Court reversed the trial court’s suppression order and remanded the case for further proceedings. View "Colorado v. Cooper" on Justia Law