The Burden Is on Him

As chief justice of a four-county region in the heart of Colorado ski country, Terry Ruckriegle had his choice of judges to assign to the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case.

That he chose himself is an indication he realizes the stakes are mile-high.

Friends and colleagues of Ruckriegle say the 56-year-old avid outdoorsman believes the reputation of Rocky Mountain justice hinges on the Laker star’s getting evenhanded treatment in a courtroom where decorum is paramount and grandstanding forbidden.

“He took this case of his own volition,” said Craig Silverman, a former Denver deputy district attorney who has followed the case closely. “He clearly wants this responsibility and wants to show the world he can do it well.”

Courtroom observers favorably compare Ruckriegle to Richard Matsch, the no-nonsense federal judge who presided over the Oklahoma City bombing trials, which were held in Denver.

“Matsch was demanding and controlling, and Terry will be the same way,” said David Lugert, a former state and federal prosecutor who sat in the courtroom when Timothy J. McVeigh was tried in the Oklahoma City bombing.

“Terry knows both sides are entrenched in their positions and will fight to the bitter end. He also knows that our time-tested system to handle rapes will threaten to burst at the seams. And he is firm about not letting that happen.”

Ruckriegle is known as an unyielding taskmaster unwilling to play ringmaster. He expects prosecutors and defense attorneys to be punctual, prepared and professional.

At Bryant’s bond hearing Nov. 13, the judge rebuked Dist. Atty. Mark Hurlbert for asking that the defense be barred from observing the scientific testing of evidence when the law stipulates otherwise.

Legal experts doubt that Bryant attorney Pamela Mackey would have been allowed to say the name of Bryant’s accuser six times in open court during the preliminary hearing had Ruckriegle been presiding rather than Eagle County Judge Frederick Gannett.

“He would have admonished her in such a manner the first time that she would not have repeated it,” said attorney David Drawbert, who has known Ruckriegle for 20 years.

Bryant is accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old woman June 30 at an Edwards, Colo. resort. He says they had consensual sex. The first of two scheduled motions hearings will be held today in Eagle County. The trial is not expected to take place until late spring or summer.

Ruckriegle is familiar with Hurlbert, who was appointed in January when his predecessor, Mike Goodbee, moved to the state attorney general’s office. Their jurisdictions are identical -- the 5th Judicial District, which includes Eagle, Summit, Lake and Clear Creek counties.

Recently, the judge presided over two other high-profile cases -- one for sexual assault, the other a murder trial -- in which Hurlbert was the prosecutor. Occasionally, they locked horns.

“It has been my impression that [Hurlbert] gets pushed around by the judge like he’s still a baby deputy D.A.,” said a seasoned courtroom observer. “That is almost appalling to me. Mark gets slapped around by Ruckriegle and he shouldn’t. They should be on equal standing.”

Others say the judge is equally demanding of everyone in his courtroom.

“I think Terry shows the appropriate deference to [Hurlbert’s] position as D.A.,” Drawbert said.

Neither Ruckriegle nor Hurlbert is consenting to interviews and neither would comment for this article.

In the August sexual assault trial, a Summit County jury acquitted a man on two felony counts. Evidence centered on the testimony of the accused and his alleged victim.

The trial was marked by contentious courtroom exchanges, and Ruckriegle reprimanded Hurlbert and public defender Dale McPheetres for what the Summit Daily described as “procedural subterfuge” that caused the trial to extend into a third day.

Afterward, Hurlbert said, “You learn something with every trial. You learn something whether you win or lose.”

In the murder trial, Ruckriegle twice last summer turned down a plea bargain agreed upon by Hurlbert and the defense attorney.

The accord would have allowed one man to plead guilty to felony manslaughter in exchange for testifying against two other men. Ruckriegle denied the plea bargain because it included a stipulation that the man receive no prison time.

Ruckriegle and Hurlbert rarely socialize even though both live in tiny Breckenridge, a former gold-mining town about 70 miles east of Eagle that has become an upscale ski resort. Ruckriegle, an Indiana native, moved to the area with his wife, Deb, soon after graduating from law school in 1973, and they have three daughters. Hurlbert, 34, grew up in nearby Dillon and also is married with children.

Away from court, Ruckriegle immerses himself in the community. In the last year he officiated at a mass wedding at the Loveland ski area on Valentine’s Day and judged the annual Summit High variety show.

His daughters play soccer and are expert skiers, and he lends his faded red Chevy Suburban to their ski club for trips.

Every fall he takes a week to hunt deer and elk with the same friends. “It’s a religious experience with him,” Drawbert said.

Thin and fit with light-brown hair, Ruckriegle often peers longingly from behind wire-rimmed glasses to the snow-covered slopes outside the window of his office at the Summit County Justice Center. And he frequently gives in, using a two-hour lunch break to ski with Drawbert and others.

“That’s what has kept guys like Terry and me here,” Drawbert said. “If we woke up and didn’t see those mountains, it would leave such a gaping hole.”

Ruckriegle has sacrificed earning potential for his bucolic surroundings. He has been a district judge since 1984 and chief judge since 1994, making $105,000 a year. He was a finalist for a Colorado Supreme Court opening in 2000 and is expected to be nominated again.

Ruckriegle’s last state judicial performance review came in 1998, when a majority of litigants, jurors and attorneys said he should be retained as chief judge, lauding him for his control over the docket, his knowledge of the rules of evidence and procedure and his treatment of litigants and jurors. However, only 17 of 26 attorneys supported retaining Ruckriegle. On a standardized form, four chose “no opinion” and five chose “do not retain.”

In 20 years as a district judge, Ruckriegle has had 64 cases appealed, and 30% were overturned or dismissed. Silverman said the percentage is moderately high and could indicate that Ruckriegle is unafraid of thinking for himself.

The judge already has plenty to consider in the Bryant case. Sixteen motions -- 10 by the defense, six by the prosecution -- were filed by the Monday deadline he set. Few of those issues will be addressed today, because the docket was already full.

On recent weekends and weekday evenings, Ruckriegle’s car has been seen parked at the rear entrance of the Summit County Justice Center more often than usual. The afternoon ski jaunts have ceased.

“You don’t see the stress affect his rulings, but I can see it in his face as a friend,” Drawbert said. “He took the case out of a sense of what would be best for the people of the 5th District. He doesn’t want the community to look like it can’t handle something of this magnitude.”