Two Denver magistrates criticized by some homeowners for failing to conduct requested foreclosure hearings are getting different responsibilities.
Under the shift, District Court Magistrates Diane Dupree and Elizabeth Leith will handle more domestic and family cases. Magistrate David Furman will preside over the foreclosure hearings, in part because some of his legal duties are being phased out, Karen Salaz, the court’s public information officer, said in an e-mail Tuesday.
The changes went into effect last month to “provide a more practical and equitable division of the workload,” Salaz said. She didn’t indicate whether the complaints were a factor.
A handful of borrowers say Dupree and Leith failed to give them so-called “Rule 120” hearings, which borrowers are entitled to under state law if they file proper requests of the court. The hearings are critical because that’s when a judge decides whether a lender has the right to sell a foreclosed property at auction.
Six Denver borrowers who say they properly requested hearings didn’t get them, they told The Post in May. Four requested hearings and were to appear before Dupree, and two requested hearings and were to appear before Leith.
Three borrowers, acting as their own attorneys, jointly sued Dupree in September. The case, which claims violation of civil rights, is pending in U.S. District Court.
Leith is not a party to the suit. She did not return a call for comment Tuesday. The Colorado attorney general’s office, which is defending Dupree, declined to comment.
According to court records, the three borrowers requested hearings that weren’t held. Yet a district court database indicated they were. The attorney general’s office acknowledged the flawed database in its December response to the lawsuit.
In the statement issued Tuesday, Salaz wrote that the problem was not the database “but rather how people outside the courts were interpreting what the codes mean.” Denver is considering using a different code to explain the court’s actions, Salaz wrote.
The database’s code should be changed immediately because it is the same data the Denver County Public Trustee uses to set deadlines for the foreclosure process, said Tyrone Allen, one of the three men who filed suit against Dupree. Allen said the public trustee scheduled his home for auction because it relied on the database.
“If I don’t know what the database means, and the public trustee’s office doesn’t know, is that a problem with us or the court’s database?” he asked. “All I do know is that you can watch your property get sold without due process because of what the court wants to consider a little misunderstanding.”
Staff writer Christine Tatum can be reached at 303-820-1015 or ctatum@denverpost.com.
