Larry schwartz trial#

Then came stints in the District Attorney’s office, several years in private practice as a lawyer, and a short break from the law as a commercial realtor. Joining the Air Force at the end of the Vietnam War, he served as a Judge Advocate General in an active duty tour from 1974 to 1978 and went on to finish his military career in the Reserve, back home, at Peterson Air Force Base. He graduated from the University of Colorado Law School in 1973, rising to assistant editor of the Law Review. Raised in a humble home on South Cascade Avenue in Colorado Springs, he starred in three sports and captained the Wasson High School football team before matriculating in 1966. Judge Schwartz seemed destined to lead in one field or another.

Larry schwartz trial#

Later we confirmed what we’d all suspected: The “perfect” trial judge was none other than Schwartz, who sat silently, though probably somewhat abashed, throughout the presentation. During their presentation, they kept referring to how the judge in a notable case (“a very good judge-one of the best”) had rendered “perfect” findings, upon subsequent appellate court review. Known as a rare “judges’ judge” and rarer still as a “lawyers’ judge,” Judge Schwartz and a few colleagues sat next to each other at a judicial conference a couple of years ago while a criminal defense lawyer and a district attorney gave a case law update. One year, he set the modern-day record on our bench for the number of days in court presiding over jury trials-we profoundly hope his record remains intact-and more jurors in El Paso County have likely had personal encounters with His Honor than with any other judge.Ĭoloradans should be thankful for their native son’s iron man constitution and constant excellence, because over the years Judge Schwartz has done nothing less than elevate the reputation of our judiciary to the rest of the state and beyond. Judge Schwartz has somehow managed to maintain that sterling reputation despite having been randomly assigned more high-profile, legally thorny, and outright notorious trials than any other judge in recent memory. He is the very image of what all judges aspire to be. He doesn’t just look the part through and through. In other words, Judge Schwartz has been our ideal, with an iconic reputation derived as much from his debonair good looks as the heart beneath his robes and the sharp legal mind towering above.

Still so much the picture of the ideal judge, he remains the beneficiary of one of the bench’s most flattering running jokes: From time to time, when judges involved in some public matter have been asked to supply their photos, they’ve often jokingly suggested substituting Judge Schwartz’s portrait for their own. After 23 years on the Fourth Judicial District Court Bench, Judge Larry Schwartz retired in May.