Denver District Judge Bruce Jones, seen here at a 2020 hearing at the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse in Denver. (RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
For court watchers in Denver’s business community, it was another year of important cases. Here are four colorful moments that BusinessDen was on hand to write about.
An emergency along Broadway
“The one time that I think a judge is taught to consider a temporary restraining order,” Denver District Judge Bruce Jones dryly remarked in his West Texas drawl at a downtown hearing Aug. 19, “is when somebody is saying that a building’s going to fall down.”
Jones had called an emergency hearing after Amacon, general contractor of The Upton Residences, a 461-unit condo project at 1800 Welton St., warned that a concrete subcontractor called GCon was “impulsively” removing supports from the project, risking its collapse.
“This is an emergency,” Amacon’s lawyer said. “This is a building that needs to be secure.”
In the end, cooler heads prevailed. GCon agreed to stay away from the project and Jones issued an order to that effect. A monetary dispute between the two firms is ongoing.
A day trader is sentenced
“This kind of thing has a terrible effect on the victims. I don’t know how Mr. Bell could live with himself during this scheme,” U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer said Sept. 12.
Moments later, Brimmer sentenced Ian Bell to 37 months in a federal prison and ordered him to pay $1.2 million in restitution to 30 victims. Bell, a failed day trader from a wealthy background, had lost that much in cocaine-fueled trading binges, then used phony emails and screenshots to hide the losses from investors. Brimmer was unimpressed with the 36 year old.
“There is no suggestion that Mr. Bell was ever trying to do well by his clients. Ever! He was just playing with their money because it was free money, hoping he would hit the jackpot.”
The crypto pastor trial
It was an unusual three days when, in early May, online pastor Eli Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn, represented themselves in a civil trial against Colorado’s Division of Securities.
From descriptions of the Regalados’ wrecked trading platform (“One homie just freakin’ smoked it”) to debates over whether the couple could testify about what God had told them (“all the Lord hearsay,” as Judge Heidi Kutcher called it), there was never a dull courtroom moment.
“I’m not going to allow sermons or preaching in my courtroom, because I have to keep that separate,” Kutcher told Eli Regalado at one point, as he discussed sowing and tithing.
Lawyers get lectured
Judge Jones’ second appearance on this list is from March 31, when he’d had enough.
“Lawyers should not allow themselves to serve as mouthpieces for attempts at retribution,” he said. “Disappointingly, that is exactly what I have seen from the lawyers’ behavior over the last several weeks with the filings that I have reviewed. This court will not act as a conduit for such behavior. You want to slander each other? Do it outside of the litigation privilege!”
Before him were eight attorneys for William and Renee Brinkerhoff, whose contentious marital divorce had led to a contentious business divorce that split their six restaurants, including La Loma locations. And Jones had grown tired of their highly personal mudslinging.
“Counsel is on notice,” he warned at the close of that day’s hearing. “Any further personalized attacks by their respective clients by way of pleadings will result in sanctions, not only on the client who engages in such attacks but also on the lawyers who file on their behalf.”
With that, he declared court was in recess, stood up and walked out of his courtroom.
Denver District Judge Bruce Jones, seen here at a 2020 hearing at the Lindsey-Flanigan Courthouse in Denver. (RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)
For court watchers in Denver’s business community, it was another year of important cases. Here are four colorful moments that BusinessDen was on hand to write about.
An emergency along Broadway
“The one time that I think a judge is taught to consider a temporary restraining order,” Denver District Judge Bruce Jones dryly remarked in his West Texas drawl at a downtown hearing Aug. 19, “is when somebody is saying that a building’s going to fall down.”
Jones had called an emergency hearing after Amacon, general contractor of The Upton Residences, a 461-unit condo project at 1800 Welton St., warned that a concrete subcontractor called GCon was “impulsively” removing supports from the project, risking its collapse.
“This is an emergency,” Amacon’s lawyer said. “This is a building that needs to be secure.”
In the end, cooler heads prevailed. GCon agreed to stay away from the project and Jones issued an order to that effect. A monetary dispute between the two firms is ongoing.
A day trader is sentenced
“This kind of thing has a terrible effect on the victims. I don’t know how Mr. Bell could live with himself during this scheme,” U.S. District Judge Philip Brimmer said Sept. 12.
Moments later, Brimmer sentenced Ian Bell to 37 months in a federal prison and ordered him to pay $1.2 million in restitution to 30 victims. Bell, a failed day trader from a wealthy background, had lost that much in cocaine-fueled trading binges, then used phony emails and screenshots to hide the losses from investors. Brimmer was unimpressed with the 36 year old.
“There is no suggestion that Mr. Bell was ever trying to do well by his clients. Ever! He was just playing with their money because it was free money, hoping he would hit the jackpot.”
The crypto pastor trial
It was an unusual three days when, in early May, online pastor Eli Regalado and his wife, Kaitlyn, represented themselves in a civil trial against Colorado’s Division of Securities.
From descriptions of the Regalados’ wrecked trading platform (“One homie just freakin’ smoked it”) to debates over whether the couple could testify about what God had told them (“all the Lord hearsay,” as Judge Heidi Kutcher called it), there was never a dull courtroom moment.
“I’m not going to allow sermons or preaching in my courtroom, because I have to keep that separate,” Kutcher told Eli Regalado at one point, as he discussed sowing and tithing.
Lawyers get lectured
Judge Jones’ second appearance on this list is from March 31, when he’d had enough.
“Lawyers should not allow themselves to serve as mouthpieces for attempts at retribution,” he said. “Disappointingly, that is exactly what I have seen from the lawyers’ behavior over the last several weeks with the filings that I have reviewed. This court will not act as a conduit for such behavior. You want to slander each other? Do it outside of the litigation privilege!”
Before him were eight attorneys for William and Renee Brinkerhoff, whose contentious marital divorce had led to a contentious business divorce that split their six restaurants, including La Loma locations. And Jones had grown tired of their highly personal mudslinging.
“Counsel is on notice,” he warned at the close of that day’s hearing. “Any further personalized attacks by their respective clients by way of pleadings will result in sanctions, not only on the client who engages in such attacks but also on the lawyers who file on their behalf.”
With that, he declared court was in recess, stood up and walked out of his courtroom.
