Article: Judicial Department Scandals Push Discipline Commission into the Spotlight | Law Week Colorado

the Colorado Supreme Court released a memo detailing several alleged incidents of sexual harassment and judicial misconduct, including a judge who sent a pornographic video using an official email account, a judge who “rubbed his hairy chest” on a female employee, and a law clerk who accused a Court of Appeals judge of harassment and was later offered a release agreement to protect the judge. . . .

In the wake of the revelations, the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline has sought to clarify its role and what it knew of the allegations. According to a Feb. 12 news release from the commission, a review of records from the past five years failed to yield a referral from the SCAO or office of the Chief Justice that matches the “limited details reported publicly” . . .

“It’s puzzling to us. . . . Campbell said the commission is continuing to check its records for anything that might have been "missed."

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Et Tu, Brute: What About Prosecutorial Immunity? - Survey (3pmonline.com)

We are releasing results next week for a Survey we conducted about attitudes toward prosecutorial immunity (40 respondents). We closed the survey. Our article above discusses the survey effort. Comments welcome here on Reddit.

As recent US protests demanded reform for police, similar demands that reform impact prosecutors have been less prominent. For context, this is a 2014 press release from the ACLU of MN re: prosecutorial immunity being extended to non-attorney investigators in a Medicaid fraud case, who seized "all" medical records, including those of patients unrelated to the investigation. They then "lost or destroyed" the patient files. The clinic sued. The MN appeals court ruled (on pp. 12 - 14) the investigators worked at the direction of the prosecutors, and therefore were absolutely immune from civil liability.

As we contend with a global pandemic, the management, use, or potential seizure of medical records for law enforcement purposes has not been discussed (yet). If prosecutors, or those in their employ, violate the Fourth Amendment, they are absolutely immune. As a first step for our analysis, we issued a short, small (40 respondents) survey exploring topline sentiment about prosecutorial immunity. 10 general questions.

Seems like lawyers have been off the table, despite reform demands. If the current national debate views police and prosecutors as different parts of a single justice system continuum, then will reforming only one sector of tax-paid officials result in change? Or, are people generally satisfied with the functions of lawyers in the justice system, such that change is not a primary objective? Is there bipartisan support for something clean to hold prosecutors accountable?

Comments welcome.

Illustrated charts revealing results for our first Survey about attitudes toward prosecutorial accountability are now available: Survey Chart Results: Prosecutorial Accountability (2021). [40 Respondents] .

Check out our Key Takeaways, with our commentary, here: Survey Results: Et Tu, Brute? Prosecutorial Accountability (3pmonline.com)

Thank You to all our respondents who participated in our very first Survey Drive!

We sponsor the survey with the purpose of sparking discussion. It is not intended to be a forensic exercise or for scientific certainty. Also, since it is our first, had to keep it limited. 10 questions only (4 minutes average completion time).

When we initiated this survey in Nov. 2020, our survey administrator platform allowed unlimited surveys. However, the service contract changed effective Jan. 2021, without notice. We were now limited to only 40 responses, even for surveys commenced before the service transition. As we develop, we will explore different administrators to provide readers the most opportunity for participation.

This week, there were significant developments in reform efforts for policing in the United States. However, there was no mention of reform proposals for the nation's prosecutors, the necessary complement to deployment of police in our neighborhoods. In fact, police often act at the instruction of prosecutors. Unclear why it is not on the table?

The 40 respondents wanted it too! Survey Results: Et Tu, Brute? Prosecutorial Accountability (3pmonline.com)

Comments welcome here. Would kind of be "a survey of the survey":)