AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q co-owner Jared Leonard sits for a portrait Nov. 9, 2022, at his Denver restaurant. (Eli Imadali/Special to The Denver Post)
In both criminal and civil courts, Denver businesses will be reshaped by rulings in the new year. Here are four cases to keep an eye on as the calendar turns to 2026.
Kong
Ownership of Kong, the Golden pet toy company, is likely to be decided in the new year.
Judge Chris Baumann heard three weeks of arguments in August. The case pits Joe Markham, a former mechanic who founded the company in the 1970s, against longtime Kong President KD Decker and investor John Nelson, the duo largely credited with making Kong a success.
Each side accuses the other of violating the company’s governing documents to enrich themselves and believes that so doing entitles them to full control of the company, which is valued at a half-billion dollars. Baumann has not said when he plans to decide the matter.
Flora
A seven-day trial that played out in September is likely to result in a 2026 court ruling that decides whether a local architecture firm was to blame for project delays at an apartment building in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood or whether it has been unfairly maligned.
Flora, at 3500 Chestnut Place, has 92 apartments and 15,000 square feet of retail space. Between 2018 and 2023, when it left the project, Flora was designed by Studio Completiva, a firm in RiNo whose other projects include the Great Hall at Denver International Airport.
“Studio C was faced with the choice of continuing to work for free or walk off the job, and continuing to work for free would have resulted in bankruptcy,” Daniel Woodward, an attorney for the studio, told Denver District Judge Bruce Jones at the September trial.
Jones will decide whether Flora’s developers are entitled to the $3.6 million they seek.
Jared Leonard
It has been a long fall for Leonard, the 45-year-old Evergreen restaurateur who closed five eateries in 2024 and 2025 following lawsuits and an employee walkout, and now faces seven counts of money laundering, bank fraud, wire fraud and transporting stolen property.
That case, which involves allegations that Leonard fraudulently acquired $1.9 million in pandemic aid and then spent it on a $1.2 million home and other personal expenses, will likely end this year, according to recent court filings. Prosecutors say they and Leonard’s defense attorney are negotiating a plea deal for the current counts “and other potential and related charges.”
The next hearing is set for Jan. 23 in Chicago, where Leonard is being prosecuted.
Brian Watson
Denver developer Brian Watson, who has been involved in a seemingly unending legal saga involving Amazon since 2019, should receive closure in another matter this year.
A five-day jury trial is scheduled for the final week of January in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against Watson. The SEC accuses him of lying to commercial real estate investors in 2017, 2018 and 2019 about his own investment in the projects.
The SEC plans to call Watson to testify, along with his former co-workers and investors.
“The SEC will prove at trial that Watson and his company, Northstar, defrauded investors in 11 different offerings over the course of 36 months,” it said in a Dec. 17 court filing.
Watson has denied wrongdoing in the case, which is a civil rather than criminal matter.
“Because Mr. Watson and Northstar have not violated any of the securities laws, the SEC is not entitled to any remedy,” the defendants’ lawyers wrote in a Dec. 9 court document. “But even if the defendants had committed violations, the SEC would not be entitled to the remedies it seeks. No investors were harmed by any conduct of Mr. Watson and Northstar.”
AJ’s Pit Bar-B-Q co-owner Jared Leonard sits for a portrait Nov. 9, 2022, at his Denver restaurant. (Eli Imadali/Special to The Denver Post)
In both criminal and civil courts, Denver businesses will be reshaped by rulings in the new year. Here are four cases to keep an eye on as the calendar turns to 2026.
Kong
Ownership of Kong, the Golden pet toy company, is likely to be decided in the new year.
Judge Chris Baumann heard three weeks of arguments in August. The case pits Joe Markham, a former mechanic who founded the company in the 1970s, against longtime Kong President KD Decker and investor John Nelson, the duo largely credited with making Kong a success.
Each side accuses the other of violating the company’s governing documents to enrich themselves and believes that so doing entitles them to full control of the company, which is valued at a half-billion dollars. Baumann has not said when he plans to decide the matter.
Flora
A seven-day trial that played out in September is likely to result in a 2026 court ruling that decides whether a local architecture firm was to blame for project delays at an apartment building in Denver’s RiNo neighborhood or whether it has been unfairly maligned.
Flora, at 3500 Chestnut Place, has 92 apartments and 15,000 square feet of retail space. Between 2018 and 2023, when it left the project, Flora was designed by Studio Completiva, a firm in RiNo whose other projects include the Great Hall at Denver International Airport.
“Studio C was faced with the choice of continuing to work for free or walk off the job, and continuing to work for free would have resulted in bankruptcy,” Daniel Woodward, an attorney for the studio, told Denver District Judge Bruce Jones at the September trial.
Jones will decide whether Flora’s developers are entitled to the $3.6 million they seek.
Jared Leonard
It has been a long fall for Leonard, the 45-year-old Evergreen restaurateur who closed five eateries in 2024 and 2025 following lawsuits and an employee walkout, and now faces seven counts of money laundering, bank fraud, wire fraud and transporting stolen property.
That case, which involves allegations that Leonard fraudulently acquired $1.9 million in pandemic aid and then spent it on a $1.2 million home and other personal expenses, will likely end this year, according to recent court filings. Prosecutors say they and Leonard’s defense attorney are negotiating a plea deal for the current counts “and other potential and related charges.”
The next hearing is set for Jan. 23 in Chicago, where Leonard is being prosecuted.
Brian Watson
Denver developer Brian Watson, who has been involved in a seemingly unending legal saga involving Amazon since 2019, should receive closure in another matter this year.
A five-day jury trial is scheduled for the final week of January in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s case against Watson. The SEC accuses him of lying to commercial real estate investors in 2017, 2018 and 2019 about his own investment in the projects.
The SEC plans to call Watson to testify, along with his former co-workers and investors.
“The SEC will prove at trial that Watson and his company, Northstar, defrauded investors in 11 different offerings over the course of 36 months,” it said in a Dec. 17 court filing.
Watson has denied wrongdoing in the case, which is a civil rather than criminal matter.
“Because Mr. Watson and Northstar have not violated any of the securities laws, the SEC is not entitled to any remedy,” the defendants’ lawyers wrote in a Dec. 9 court document. “But even if the defendants had committed violations, the SEC would not be entitled to the remedies it seeks. No investors were harmed by any conduct of Mr. Watson and Northstar.”
