Colorado judicial discipline authorities are seeking to remove a Western Slope judge from the bench after they say the judge sought to use his position to avoid a boating ticket, held a frivolous hearing and then lied about his actions during a disciplinary investigation.
Jeffrey Walsh, special counsel for the Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline, petitioned Monday for the removal of 22nd Judicial District County Court Judge Ian MacLaren over the alleged misconduct.
The judge’s disciplinary case will now be considered by a panel of three members of the Judicial Discipline Adjudicative Board — including a judge, a lawyer and a citizen — to determine whether discipline should be imposed and what that discipline should be.
Walsh is seeking both a public censure and the judge’s removal from the bench. MacLaren became a judge in Montezuma County in November 2024 after serving as a part-time judge in Dolores County starting in June 2024.
“Judge MacLaren cannot be both censured for lying to the Commission and also remain on the bench as a judge,” Walsh wrote in a 16-page complaint filed Monday. “This would profoundly undermine the public’s confidence in the judiciary.”
MacLaren is accused of holding a frivolous hearing in a case in which both the defense and prosecution agreed that the defendant should receive a diversion — that is, the criminal case against the defendant would be dismissed if the defendant met certain conditions for six months.
MacLaren disagreed with the diversion deal and called an unnecessary hearing in February — to which he invited a local newspaper reporter with whom he was romantically involved — solely to air his displeasure, the Commission on Judicial Discipline’s complaint alleged.
The Cortez Journal reporter, who published a story about the hearing, also took a picture in the courtroom, which is not allowed under court rules without a formal pre-approval process. She published the image with her story and texted the image to the judge, noting she’d taken it “secretly.” The judge responded that he liked the photo.
During the disciplinary investigation, MacLaren falsely and repeatedly claimed he’d never invited the reporter to his courtroom and that he didn’t realize she was there that day. Text messages between the two showed that he did invite her to that hearing, and that she likely sat in the front row, according to the complaint. The two texted about her attendance.
MacLaren also falsely claimed he held hearings for all diversion agreements and falsely claimed he was uncertain about the best practice for handling diversion agreements, the disciplinary commission alleges.
The judge did not immediately return a request for comment Monday. In a written response to the allegations, MacLaren said he held the hearing in the interest of public transparency.
“My concern was that if (I) stayed proceedings via written order and did not address the matter in open court, members of the public would not understand how or why the case disappeared,” he wrote in May. “…There was grave risk, from my perspective, that staying proceedings absent a hearing would cast the illusion that things were being done ‘behind closed doors.'”
MacLaren also said that he discussed the case and his work as a judge “very little” with the newspaper reporter, and emphasized that their relationship was social rather than professional.
“I do not believe that my relationship… compromised my integrity or my ability to be fair and impartial in any way,” he wrote.
The reporter, who said she left the Cortez Journal earlier this year, denied she was in a romantic relationship with the judge and said they socialized minimally and only as friends before she cut off contact with him.
Trent Stephens, executive editor at Ballantine Communications, which owns the newspaper, said the staff had no knowledge of a romantic relationship between the reporter and the judge aside from MacLaren’s description of such a relationship in his response to the judicial discipline commission.
“We believe that the judge tipped off the reporter about a significant development in the case,” he said in a statement.
Separately, the judge was twice stopped by Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials in June for having an expired registration as he was boating on McPhee Reservoir in Montezuma County. He was let go with a warning after the first stop, but during the second stop — which occurred the next day — MacLaren mentioned to the officers that he was a judge.
The officers then privately debated among themselves whether to ticket MacLaren, according to the disciplinary complaint.
“Their concern was that, if they ticketed Judge MacLaren, he might have a poor opinion of CPW officers or their agency, and that this might adversely affect cases before Judge MacLaren in which CPW officers were witnesses,” the complaint reads. “After discussion about the matter, the officers decided to issue Judge MacLaren a ticket. However, the officers’ hesitation illustrates why judges should never raise their status as a judge during an encounter with law enforcement.”
The disciplinary commission alleges MacLaren violated eight professional standards. The Adjudicative Board has not yet scheduled a time to consider the case.
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