SandBoxBlogs: Aspen Daily News "Will district attorney Martin Beeson’s candidacy end up in court?"

Mid-morning update:
A 'sort of' thank you goes out to "Beeson Anonymous #41" for the email tip and personal request to post the following update:

Local attorney Sherry Caloia has entered the race against Martin Beeson for the 9th Judicial District Attorney seat.  Caloia was instrumental in getting Beeson petition eligible and elected in his coup over Colleen Truden roughly eight years ago.  Information confirmed  on Sec of State website.

Good luck to both candidates.
____________________________________________________
(See related story here and disclaimer below)

This...is the reason we wait for the higher standard in investigative reporting that comes off the Aspen Daily News.  We do it for the subject content and people.  For the communities that are affected by the report.  We do it so that there is less spin and greater trust.

Comment ability is now open on the news of DA Beeson's candidacy being highly likely challenged and placed before state courts to decide legitimacy.

Thank you to Carolyn Sackariason.  Up on the Aspen Daily News. 

"Ninth Judicial District Attorney Martin Beeson appears to be eligible to run for re-election, based on an opinion from the Colorado Attorney General’s office, but his candidacy could end up in the courts.......

.........Once he is certified, opponents have five days to challenge his place on the ballot in Denver district court.

Tom Silverman, a defense attorney in Glenwood Springs who is a former deputy DA, municipal judge and prosecutor, has considered challenging Beeson’s eligibility but has made no decisions. He added that he expects it will be challenged in court by someone.

Silverman argues that there is no legal precedent regarding the attorney general’s opinion.

“The attorney general opinion is not binding on any court,” Silverman wrote in an email. “It also was not written for this situation, it dealt with appointed DAs and has never been accepted by any court.”

Silverman added that as a conservative, Beeson would typically take a position that courts should strictly construe the law. The state constitution in this case says the top prosecutor is not eligible to hold the office, he said.

“Strict construction is not convenient so Beeson is going with ‘judicial legislation,’ or ‘legislating from the bench,’ hoping the court will say that the two-term limitation strictly stated is not what the constitutional amendment means. ... His first elected term of three years should not count because it wasn’t four years,” Silverman wrote. “That construction is nowhere in the amendment.”...." (Read more?  Click title)

"Truth goes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Then it is violently opposed. Finally, it is accepted as self-evident."


Disclaimer:

"Now that DA Beeson has thrown his hat in the ring for district attorney in the 9th, please take note that there will be no special treatment given to any news press surrounding his race. His articles, if they are SandBox worthy or chosen in the daily agg run-up; will be put up just like anyone else in a political race. What SandBox Commentators will continue to do, is heavily moderate his articles. We are the only news media that provides the courtesy of moderating commentary from the general public on 9th Judicial District and Mr. Beeson's articles. )"

SandBoxBlogs: Glenwood Springs Post Independent "Defense attorney questioning DA's eligibility for re-election"

(sighs...rolls eyes)

Note:  SandBox disclaimer below.

Note:  Because both men in this article are showing absolutely zero regard to the general population they serve, by placing themselves and their flaming controversy(s), (that just so happen to deeply affect the lives of folks in three counties) into the hands of the least trustworthy print news and reporter around (which renders the data they're football tossing around as suspect) 'SandBox Nanny' calls 'Time Out' on both men, blocks comment ability on this post (it would be like sending lambs to the slaughter to let the 'kids' at them in comments)  and sits back to wait patiently on the balanced, firm hand of the Aspen Daily News.  "If" the Daily doesn't report on this new direction for DA Beeson's political race to run, 'SandBox Nanny' will open comment ability and  bless each man as they head into the ring they keep insisting on shoving in the folks faces. Take note of disclaimer below again, please.

John Colson:
"........At issue is whether the three years Beeson served as district attorney when he finished the term of a recalled DA, from 2006 through 2008, counts as his first term in office, or if his first term started when he was elected in 2008. Under state law, district attorneys are limited to two terms in office..........

........Local defense attorney Tom Silverman of Glenwood Springs, a Democrat, contends that the coming four-year term for which Beeson is running would be his third term.

Silverman cited the Colorado Constitution, which states that district attorneys are restricted to two, four-year terms in office.

Beeson, however, maintains that he has yet to serve two full terms in office.

“He is simply wrong,” Beeson said of Silverman's position.

According to his reading of state law, Beeson said, “a term for a district attorney is a full term, and a full term is four years.”

He cited a 2000 legal opinion issued by then-Colorado Attorney General Ken Salazar, which concluded that DAs can serve no more than two full terms.

The opinion did not specifically address the issue of how partial terms count toward the term limits allotment. The opinion states that term limits “have no application to partial terms of office, but rather apply only to full terms.”.....

......Silverman, however, cited a section of the state Constitution, which states that anyone elected “to fill a vacancy ... and who serves at least one half of a term of office shall be considered to have served a term.”

Although that section specifically addresses term limits on U.S. senators and members of Congress, Silverman maintained that the same limitation applies to district attorneys.

“He was elected to a three-year term,” Silverman said, referring to Beeson's initial time in office. “It was more than half a term, so it does count.”.........

.........Silverman questioned why Beeson did not, as state law allows, ask the voters to allow him to serve more than the two-term limit.

In 2009, for example, Mesa County voters decided that those holding the offices of sheriff, DA and coroner could each serve three, four-year terms, rather than the two-term limit imposed by the state..........

.........“Saying I should go to the voters to get permission to run for a second term is like saying I should go to the voters to get permission to drive the speed limit while I'm already driving the speed limit,” Beeson said in an email to the Post Independent. “I am going to the voters. This November.”........

.........Beeson contends that Silverman's questioning of his eligibility to run again stems from courtroom conflicts.

“Let's be clear. Mr. Silverman's issue is not with the law or with the fact that I am in full compliance with the law. His issue is with me,” Beeson wrote in an email. “He is a criminal defense attorney who simply does not like the fact that my office does not coddle his clients, does not accede to his wishes in cases, and does not treat his clients with kid gloves.”

Beeson questioned why Silverman didn't seek another candidate to run, or run for the office himself.

“His failure in this regard speaks volumes,” Beeson wrote. “The adage ‘put up or shut up' is an apt one here.”........"
(Read the rest of this?  Click title)

Disclaimer:

"Now that DA Beeson has thrown his hat in the ring for district attorney in the 9th, please take note that there will be no special treatment given to any news press surrounding his race. His articles, if they are SandBox worthy or chosen in the daily agg run-up; will be put up just like anyone else in a political race. What SandBox Commentators will continue to do, is heavily moderate his articles. We are the only news media that provides the courtesy of moderating commentary from the general public on 9th Judicial District and Mr. Beeson's articles. )" 

SandBox Comments: Aspen Daily News "The wrong approach to justice"

January 26, 2012, Note from 'SandBox Nanny':

(Now that DA Beeson has thrown his hat in the ring for district attorney in the 9th, please take note that there will be no special treatment given to any news press surrounding his race. His articles, if they are SandBox worthy or chosen in the daily agg run-up; will be put up just like anyone else in a political race. What SandBox Commentators will continue to do, is heavily moderate his articles. We are the only news media that provides the courtesty of moderating commentary from the general public on 9th Judicial District and Mr. Beeson's articles. )

Tom Silverman:
"Martin Beeson has announced his candidacy for a third term as district attorney for the 9th Judicial District while calling it a second term to avoid term limits.

In doing so he put a bizarre twist on the familiar campaign shout of “Four more years!” to “Four-hundred more years!” by bragging that he had obtained that many years in sentences to prison.

Third terms are plainly prohibited by the Colorado Constitution he has taken an oath to defend.

Article XVIII,  section 11 states  “… no non-judicial [elected] official … shall serve more than two consecutive terms in office …” DAs included.

Beeson finishes his second consecutive term this year.

The end result of his interpretation allows serving about 11 years instead of a maximum of eight. His interpretation is part of the arrogance of power the amendment was trying to avoid.

My objection to his candidacy isn’t focused on the term-limits issue though. My objection to his being DA is that he’s just so darn bad at it.

No respectable prosecutor would bathe in the mud of claiming pride in having obtained 400 years of sentences for people he prosecuted. It ignores the function of the prosecutor to make that boast.

This “count the years” measure of prosecutorial success has serious flaws.

A prosecutor’s job is to do justice and do it within the rules. If a byproduct of that includes long sentences for people who deserve it, so be it, but it’s not like notches on a gun belt in the Old West...."
(Read more?  Click title)
"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."