From presiding over mock trials with local high school students to many a real trial in the Garfield County Courthouse, County Judge Paul Metzger has heard and seen a lot in 20 years on the bench.
Glenwood Springs lawyer Angela Roff has been appointed by Gov. Jared Polis to be the new Garfield County Court judge in Glenwood Springs, replacing Judge Paul Metzger who is retiring in October. Roff’s appointment takes.
Charges are being dropped in the resisting arrest case against Carbondale resident Michael Francisco in a joint agreement with the town’s prosecuting attorney announced Tuesday.
A condition of the deal, though, was that Francisco and Carbondale Police Chief Kirk Wilson participate in a facilitated “sharing of perspectives” regarding the circumstances that led to his arrest on Dec. 24, 2020.
That occurred on Friday, “during which there were powerful speaking and listening opportunities that resulted in collaborative wisdom to better inform future situations,” a town press release issued Tuesday stated.
“This incident and the way it was handled by the Carbondale Police Department will be reviewed by a third-party professional in the near future,” Town Manager Jay Harrington said in the release. “After completion of that review, the town also intends to procure a separate independent review of the police department’s policies and culture.”
John Stroud/Post Independent
A resisting arrest case against a Carbondale man involving a Dec. 24, 2020, incident at the local City Market grocery store and raising questions of racial bias is being continued for another month, despite continued calls from some members of the public that charges be dropped.
But the defendant in the case, Michael Francisco, remains hopeful for a positive outcome that will bring healing in the community.
“I’d rather it be resolved now and the charges dropped at this moment,” said Francisco, a Belize-born Black man who wears a traditional rasta headdress, outside Carbondale Town Hall Monday evening following his municipal court hearing.