DENVER—Two Fort Collins attorneys have been appointed to replace state judges voted out of office in November.
Julie Field and Stephen Howard have been appointed as judges in the judicial district based in Larimer County to replace Jolene Blair and Terrence Gilmore.
“It’s really a great opportunity to help the people of the community,” Field told The Coloradoan in Fort Collins Friday.
Field, executive director of the Confidentiality Institute, has practiced law since 1985.
Howard has his own law practice in Fort Collins.
Voters rejected retaining Blair and Gilmore as judges. The two were prosecutors in a 1999 case in which Timothy Masters was convicted of murder in a woman’s fatal stabbing and sentenced to life in prison.
Masters’ conviction was overturned in 2008 after new tests showed the DNA evidence failed to put him at the scene and pointed to other suspects. He was released from prison after serving nearly a decade in the 1987 murder of Peggy Hettrick of Fort Collins.
The state Supreme Court censured Blair and Gilmore in 2008, saying they failed as prosecutors to turn over information to defense attorneys, but found they didn’t intend to do it. A censure is a public rebuke.
Blair and Gilmore have denied hiding information or conspiring to convict Masters.
Larimer County and the city of Fort Collins agreed to pay Masters a combined $10 million to settle lawsuits claiming his civil rights were violated. He donated $3,000 to a group that worked to unseat Gilmore and Blair, according to campaign finance filings.
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Information from: Fort Collins Coloradoan,
