Colorado judge reportedly 'screamed' at attorneys days after returning from suspension, undergoing anger management
Dec. 19—Just two days after returning from a monthlong suspension from the bench for a criminal conviction that required extensive anger-management counseling, Summit County District Judge Mark Thompson launched into a courtroom tirade against two attorneys that left them "frightened" and "fearful."
Thompson said in a written order that he "roundly admonished" the lawyers at the Nov. 15 hearing for allegedly ignoring the court's trial deadlines, later admitting he was "disappointed in (himself) for (his) intemperance."
But one of the lawyers in the case said Thompson had actually "screamed" at them and that the lawyer "just sat back and took the court's anger and displeasure without standing up for myself."
"I was physically affected by the lack of decorum and outright anger directed at me," attorney William Falcone wrote in a motion for Thompson to remove himself from the case, which he denied. "I was frightened and still am fearful of how I will be treated in this courtroom in the future."
Falcone represents a moving company employee who says he was injured when he fell from the deck of a client's home while moving bedroom furniture, according to a copy of the lawsuit filed in 2020.
Thompson did not respond to The Gazette's efforts to reach him.
Thompson was suspended for 30 days without pay in August by the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline following his guilty plea to misdemeanor disorderly conduct in which he allegedly threatened his stepson with an AR-15-style rifle in July 2021 during a protracted argument at Thompson's home.
His suspension ended Nov. 13.
Thompson, who was chief judge for the state's 5th Judicial District that includes Summit County, was initially charged with felony menacing.
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He was sentenced to a year of unsupervised probation, fined and was required to continue anger-management counseling that he had voluntarily initiated. A judge since 2010, Thompson returned to the bench in a reduced capacity in February 2022 following the plea deal, resigned as chief judge of the district and was no longer hearing criminal cases.
A six-month suspension of his law license by the Office of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge, the discipline authority over lawyers, was set aside for one year as long as he stayed out of trouble.
It's unclear how that suspension could be affected by Thompson's recent conduct.
The lawyers went awry of Thompson's scheduling orders because the defendant in the case had died and they were unsure how the case would proceed to a trial that was scheduled for late November. The lawyers had not filed witness lists or an inventory of the exhibits they proposed to use.
Thompson sanctioned the lawyers by waiving the jury trial and, as an embarrassment, ordered them to appear on the trial date before "inconvenienced" prospective jurors to say they were unprepared. Thompson later rescinded that part of the order and reinstated the trial when Falcone complained. The suit will proceed against the homeowner's estate.
Falcone said he was willing to take Thompson's anger until the judge dismissed the case as part of his sanctions against the lawyers.
"It was only when the court yelled that my client's case was dismissed as a sanction that I had to speak up and point out that was the most extreme sanction, and it would be a sanction to my client who was innocent in all of this," Falcone wrote in his motion to reinstate the case.
When Thompson was suspended, an order that was approved by the Colorado Supreme Court, he was cited for failing to act in a manner that promotes public confidence in the judiciary.
