CRL Lobbyist Instructs Her On What To Say
Court Approves Of Rank Public Corruption
by the Staff of the Chronicle
It was the moment that neighborhood groups and families feared might never occur, but it did in open court on April 22, 2016. Greg Kerwin, the attorney for seven everyday citizens opposing the rezoning of the Mt. Gilead Baptist Church property in Crestmoor Park, read out loud secret email after secret email of City Councilwoman Mary Beth Susman proving that the rezoning of the property had been rigged as had always been surmised by the citizens.
Kerwin, as part of the discovery process, had demanded all emails of Susman related to the Mount Gilead rezoning, but the City an
d County of Denver did not provide certain emails that Kerwin knew existed. He then demanded the emails from her secret, off record gmail account be provided. The City Attorney having been accused of engaging in open record fraud in other cases finally complied and voila, there was a treasure trove of evidence of the corruption of the zoning process.
Kerwin pointed Judge Gilman to an amazing email dated March 20, 2015, from Sean 
Maley of the powerful lobbying firm CRL Associates, Inc. (CRL). CRL had made major monetary contributions to Susman’s re-election campaign even though she had no opponent. In the email Maley instructed Councilwoman Susman exactly what to say at an upcoming City Council meeting. Apparently, the developer, Metropolitan Homes, did not have the votes or support necessary to carry the day regarding the Mt. Gilead rezoning and therefore wanted a delay. Maley appeared to be telling the councilwoman to lie to the public, declaring she should say that the hearing “will be continued to a later date . . . [to allow the developer] to sort out the modifications to their plan and to better understand the process and timing.”
Susman meekly replied to the email back eight minutes later, “Okay. You don’t want me to say anything like ‘changes in response to community feedback?”
To the shock and amazement of the crowd of families and supporters of Crestmoor Park in the courtroom, Denver District Court Judge Shelley I. Gilman appeared to luxuriate and wallow with glee in the utter corruption of the rezoning process in Denver, totally dismissing the clear evidence of the rigging.
Next Kerwin brought to the attention of the court the incredible fact that Denver literally refused to consider the parking and traffic/transportation impacts in the rezoning as a matter of city policy and that fact was so stated by one of the council members at the meeting. Deputy City Attorney Lucero conceded that what Kerwin had stated was absolutely true.
Judge Gilman then refused to allow the concession and ordered the Deputy City Attorney to argue that the fact that the citizens voiced disbelief at the city’s refusal to consider these issues somehow constituted the Denver City Council hearing the issues.
One attendee noted, “She literally was acting as the Deputy City Attorney in charge of the case. She should have simply left the bench, gone to the defense table and had a soliloquy with herself.”
Kerwin then pointed out to the Court that Planning Board Member Jim Bershof actually signed the rezoning application himself for the Mt. Gilead property and argued to his fellow Board members that they approve the rezoning. Once again, to the dismay of the courtroom attendees, Judge Gilman had no problem with this clearly unethical conduct, indicating as long as the person doesn’t vote nothing else matters no matter how outrageous.
An observer of the planning process noted that her opinion is great news for 11 members of the Planning Board all of whom were appointed by Mayor Hancock and includes numerous developers. The observer pointed out that if you want to get your project through Denver Planning you hire one or more of the Planning Board members to sign the application and argue in front of staff and the remaining members for its approval. The Planning Board members just need to take turns getting paid from developers and they should all become very rich in a relatively short period. If Judge Gilman’s ruling is upheld in the appellate process developers can simply hire the mayor or council members in a town to argue for approval of their project as long as they do not vote in the end.
Virtually every argument made for the citizens by Kerwin was denigrated by Judge Gilman. Conversely she appeared to smile and nod in approval regarding every argument made by the Deputy City Attorney only interrupting him to provide her own defenses when he did not make a defense.
In theory a judge is supposed to act in a neutral manner in the open courtroom, treating both sides equally so as to at least give the façade of impartiality. In the 2012 report by the Colorado Office of Judicial Performance Evaluation which recommended she be retained, it declared that she had received high marks for “treating all parties equally” and “conducts an efficient and neutral courtroom.” For anyone attending the hearing either the report was simply another judicial whitewash or her judicial demeanor has suffered a precipitous demise over the last four years.
A highly disappointed neighborhood advocate declared “our seven neighborhood plaintiffs might as well have been the Scottsboro Boys in front of the infamous Judge William Washington Callahan down in Alabama in the 1930s. We knew they were dead from the first few minutes of the hearing.”
When the Court’s decision came down on May 17 absolutely no one was surprised by Judge Gilman finding for the city in each and every argument with never a single indication of hesitancy or even legal nuance.
In a telephone interview with Councilwoman Susman following the issuance of Judge Gilman’s ruling, she stated regarding the secret email account, that “she gets emails from all avenues including social media — Facebook and Twitter.” She did not recall the March 20 email from Sean Maley but that she would have been “just receiving information.” Councilwoman Susman indicated she was pleased that “the judge ruled that I was impartial in my dealings with both sides.”
One attendee at the hearing could not understand why Judge Gilman had bothered to have a hearing. “She absolutely knew how she was going to rule before she walked into that courtroom and did not bother to listen to anything the plaintiffs had to say. Perhaps she wanted to embarrass the neighborhood groups by showing them that the courts are also a farce in the City and County of Denver. If that was her goal she succeeded. I will never again believe in our legal system after the display she put on at
that hearing.”
For the neighborhood groups, Judge Gilman’s behavior was all the more dismaying due to the fact they will perhaps never have such clear and convincing proof of corruption and rigging of the process. Attorney Kerwin noted that city councilpersons will never again use secret emails that might be discovered. Instead all the rigging will be done verbally.
The plaintiffs, pursuant to Colorado Appellate Rule 50, will ask the Colorado Supreme Court to hear an expedited appeal on the matter because important, statewide precedents were established. However, for many of the citizens who attended Judge Gilman’s hearing, any faith in the legal system as a fair and impartial arbiter of cases brought before it has effectively been destroyed by her conduct on the 22nd of April 2016.