<p> news Colorado Judicial Branch Mary J. Mullarkey, Chief Justice Gerald Marroney, State Court Administrator</p><p>______Aug. 22, 2006 </p><p>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Karen Salaz 303/837-3633 1-800-888-0001 Ext. 633</p><p>Colorado Judicial Branch convenes Four Corners DUI court conference Officials from four states, three Native American nations to attend</p><p>The Colorado Judicial Branch is convening two days of training in Cortez on Aug. 24 and</p><p>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 </p><p>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 </p><p>Ute Tribe and the Navajo Nation have registered to attend.</p><p>“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 </p><p>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.” </p><p>The two-day training will be at the Cortez Conference Center. It is being funded by the </p><p>Colorado Judicial Branch, the Colorado Department of Transportation, the National Highway </p><p>Traffic Safety Administration and the National Drug Court Institute.</p><p>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.</p><p>“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 </p><p>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.</p><p>The Colorado Judicial Branch has received a grant of about $500,000 from the Colorado </p><p>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</p><p>Durango and, officials hope, on the two Native American reservations in Colorado, the Southern </p><p>Ute Reservation and the Ute Mountain Ute Reservation.</p><p>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 </p><p>Montezuma County, one in Dolores County and one in Archuleta County, according to the </p><p>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.</p><p>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. </p>