Colorado Judicial Branch Convenes Four Corners DUI Court Conference

news Colorado Judicial Branch Mary J. Mullarkey, Chief Justice Gerald Marroney, State Court Administrator

______Aug. 22, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Karen Salaz 303/837-3633 1-800-888-0001 Ext. 633

Colorado Judicial Branch convenes Four Corners DUI court conference Officials from four states, three Native American nations to attend

The Colorado Judicial Branch is convening two days of training in Cortez on Aug. 24 and

25, aimed at reducing alcohol-related traffic fatalities and injuries in the Four Corners area. The training, provided by officials of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the

National Drug Court Institute, will focus on how to operate specialized courts for repeat drunken-driving offenders. More than 100 judges, court personnel, probation officers and other officials from Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, the Southern

Ute Tribe and the Navajo Nation have registered to attend.

“It’s exciting to see the communities in this region taking steps to make their highways and communities safer,” says Paul Hofmann, management analyst with the Colorado Judicial

Branch and an organizer of the training. “There is great benefit in the communities of this region working together to address the common problem of drinking and driving.”

The two-day training will be at the Cortez Conference Center. It is being funded by the

Colorado Judicial Branch, the Colorado Department of Transportation, the National Highway

Traffic Safety Administration and the National Drug Court Institute.

A multitude of government jurisdictions and private agencies in the Four Corners area must deal with drunken driving. In southeast Colorado’s Sixth and Twenty-second Judicial Districts alone, any of nine courts may handle any drunken-driving offense: two state district courts, five county courts or courts on two Native American reservations – one part of a tribal court system and one operated by the federal government. Many more jurisdictions are involved in the rest of the Four Corners area.

“Often the DUI offender is arrested in one community, lives in another community, works in another and must travel to yet another to receive treatment,” Hofmann says

Consistency in practices and shared concentration on repeat drunken-driving offenders will help, and that’s a goal of the training to be conducted this week in Cortez.

The Colorado Judicial Branch has received a grant of about $500,000 from the Colorado

Department of Transportation for specialized court and probation handling of repeat drunken- driving offenders. The money will launch the programs in existing Colorado courts in Cortez and

Durango and, officials hope, on the two Native American reservations in Colorado, the Southern

Ute Reservation and the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation.

Colorado’s southwestern corner suffers a disproportionately large share of the drunken- driving fatalities that occur in the state each year. In 2004, the Sixth and Twenty-second judicial districts reported 16 alcohol-related traffic fatalities: seven in La Plata County, seven in

Montezuma County, one in Dolores County and one in Archuleta County, according to the

Judicial Branch’s application for the CDOT grant. That was more than 6 percent of Colorado’s total alcohol-related traffic fatalities that year, although the two judicial districts contain only 2 percent of the state’s population.

This information is provided as an e-mail service of the Colorado State Judicial Branch, Office of State Court Administrator, 1301 Pennsylvania Street, Suite 300, Denver, Colo. 80203. To discontinue this service or update your e-mail address, please respond to this message with your name, contact information and any comments.