Updates from the Chief Justice
| Publication year | 2023 |
| Pages | 20 |
January, 2023
THE CHIEF's CORNER
Updates from the Chief Justice
BY BRIAN D. BOATRIGHT
BRIAN D. BOATRIGHT
Chief Justice
Colorado Supreme Court
In the not-too-distant past, former Chief Justice Nancy Rice authored a quarterly article for Colorado Lawyer called The Chief's Corner. Chief Justice Rice created the column to provide updates on happenings within the Judicial Branch, the legal community, and the Supreme Court and, occasionally, as an outlet for humor.
I've resurrected this column in 2023 to provide updates on our workplace culture initiative, our internal operations, and our efforts to work with the bar to enhance our services and improve access to justice. It's no secret that the past three years have presented some unprecedented challenges for the Judicial Department, and I welcome the opportunity to explain to the bar how we have responded.
Allegations in the Media
Beginning in early 2021, local media reported that the Judicial Department might have awarded a "hush money" contract to a former employee who threatened to expose alleged improper behavior within the Department. Although the contract in question had been canceled years before the media accounts proliferated, the news was disturbing and disheartening for the hundreds of judicial officers and thousands of departmental employees around the state who take great pride in working hard to serve their communities. This accusation hurt our collective reputation and undermined the outstanding work of Colorado's Judicial Department.
When this media narrative emerged, the Supreme Court and the Judicial Department were constrained in what we could say publicly due to a variety of contractual and statutory obligations. Our inability to provide a comprehensive explanation fueled speculation and additional media attention. In my February 2021 State of the Judiciary address, I committed to a thorough, independent investigation of the allegations. I invited the state legislature and Governor Polis to form a panel that would independently select investigators to look into the allegations. That panel solicited and reviewed bids, interviewed applicants, and ultimately selected two investigators: Former US Attorney Bob Troyer's team was hired to investigate the allegations of a quid pro quo contract; and Investigations Law Group (ILG), led by Liz Rita, was hired to investigate the allegations in the "memo" and conduct a comprehensive review of the Judicial Department's workplace culture. With our full cooperation, these outside investigators conducted over a hundred interviews and reviewed tens of thousands of documents.
In June 2022, the investigators finalized their reports, which the Department made public without redactions.[1] Although some of the findings were sobering and, at times, upsetting to read, the reports did not support much of the media narrative over the prior 18 months. The Troyer team concluded there was no "hush money" contract, and ILG determined that many of the allegations in the "memo" were unfounded or distorted. I strongly encourage everyone to read the reports rather than merely relying on the media's characterization (or even my characterization) of the findings. Additionally, a few months before these reports were published, a separate investigation conducted by the Office of the State Auditor similarly did not support the local media coverage about a quid pro quo...
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