DENVER (Legal Newsline) - A Colorado judge who made drunken overtures to a younger lawyer at a bar association meeting and later followed him to his hotel room was hit with $20,000 in sanctions by a special tribunal of the Colorado Supreme Court, after the judge agreed to step down and accept public censure.
At a Colorado Bar Association conference in June 2022, several witnesses said former Mesa County Judge Lance Timbreza “became visibly intoxicated” and began propositioning a lawyer identified as Attorney 1. The now-former judge used his cellphone to show Attorney 1 a “photograph of a naked gay porn actor” and repeatedly asked to go to the younger lawyer’s hotel room.
“Several witnesses reported that Attorney 1 appeared comfortable with [former] Judge Timbreza initially,” according to a stipulation of facts the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline assembled and Timbreza confirmed. “But as [former] Judge Timbreza became more intoxicated, Attorney 1 appeareduncomfortable and tense while talking to [former] Judge Timbreza.”
Attorney 1 “made best efforts to politely decline” Timbreza’s overtures but eventually the two went to Attorney 1’s room. Both parties agreed not to discuss what happened next, but “Timbreza acknowledges that due to his alcohol consumption on the night in question, his judgment and his ability to objectively perceive events were compromised,” the stipulation states.
Colorado Supreme Court justices recused themselves from the matter and appointed the seven-member special tribunal to assess a penalty. They ordered Timbreza to pay $20,658 in attorney fees and costs in addition to the public censure.