JUDICIAL NOMINATING COMMISSION APPLICATION FOR COLORADO STATE COURT .

JUDGESHIP

NOTE: For the required number of copies to file. please refer to the hV.STRUCTfON SHEET that corresponds to the specific vacancy for which you are applying.

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I. The information you provide in questions t - 34 is public information and will be released upon request if the applicant's name is forwarded to the Governor for consideration of appointment.

A. PERSONAL INFORMATION

1. Full Name: Cynthia), Kowert

2. Birth year: May 16, 1958

3. Are you a United States citizen? Yes

4. Attorney Registration Number: 19369

5. Work Address: 1000 Judicial Center Drive, Suite 100, Brighton, CO 80601

6. Telephone (w): (303) 835-5492

7. List your place of residence for the past five years.

I Dates Ci State

I 595 Bad er Creek Drive Brighton CO

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B. EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

8. List the names and locations of schools attended, beginning with high school.

l Name 'Location Dates At(ended

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I Lamar Unive~sitv ~~ __ 41~B_e_a~u_m~o~n_t _To~X~_~_!f>-0~A_ug",-o _1~97_7~to_~_o1~al,,-' ~1_98_~. __ ~ ~ ~

1 TX Woman's Univ I Denton TX j Aug 1980 to Dec 1982 I s.s. - I

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I vniv of Denver College of I Denver, CO I Aug 1987 to Dec 1989 ! J D Law I

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9. List scholarships, awards, honors, and citations you received during college and law school.

Graduated top 25% of class - law school

Graduated Magna Cum Laude - undergraduate

C. PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND AND EXPERIENCE

10. List all courts in which you have been admitted to practice, with dates of admission. Give the same information for administrative bodies which require special admission to practice.

Bar Admission Date
: Admitted to practice law in Colorado since May 16, 1990

i 11. Indicate your present employment (list professional partners or associates, if any, and include dates).

If you currently practice law, describe the nature of your present law practice, listing the major types of law you practice and the percentage each constitutes of your total practice.

Adams County District Attorneys Office, Chief Trial Deputy. I am currently the Chief of the Child Victim Unit (CVU) and the Juvenile Unit, which includes supervisory and managerial duties. I also personally prosecute certain CYU cases, murder cases and complex prosecutions. 1 became a Chief in March of 2002.

12. If you have a subspecialty in any major types of law listed in number II. what is your subspecialty?

As stated above, I am curreetnly the Chief of the Child Victim Unit and the Juvenile Unit. I also served in these units when I was a Deputy District Attorney. In the past I have also supervised Adult District Court Divisions and the County Court Division.

13. List other areas of law in which you have practiced.

I law clerked briefly with a family law firm before being licesed to practice law.

14. Have you practiced in the appellate courts of Colorado within the past five years? If so, please state the number and the types of matters handled.

I handled an interlocutory appeal concerning a felony drug case in 1992. It was a successful appeal and the case was remanded. The defendant ultimately pled guilty to a felony drug charge.

IS. Have you practiced in the tria! courts of Colorado within the past five years? If so, please state what

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percentage of your total practice your trial practice constituted and the types of matters handled.

My entire case load is made up of trial cases. I have a spent a great deal of time in courtrooms over the past five years and have prosecuted many siginficant cases. These include four murder cases and an additional murder case I am currently prosecuting. Other types of cases r have prosecuted include felony assaults, sexual assualts on children, robberies, burglaries and felony drug cases.

16. List five litigated cases in which you participated as a judge or lawyer in the past five years, the names of the judges presiding. and the names of counsel. Please list current telephone (including area code) for each person identified.

L Case Name/Number: People v. Jennifer Freels Case # 07CR3399

Presiding Judge: The Honorable Judge Mark Warner

Phone: (303) 654-3281

List name(s) and telephone number(s) for opposing counsel:

Janene McCabe!Daniel Haraburta - first trial- phone # (303) 659-4274

Jeff Doniger - second trial: phone# (303) 830-3 J 88

List name(s) and telephone numberts) for co-counsel:

Rhoda Pittner - phone # (303) 659-7720

Briefly describe the case and your involvement:

I was lead counsel in this first-degree murder case, in which the defendant shot her husband in the head causing his death. The defendant claimed self-defense but the physical evidence did not support this claim. The jury hung 11-1 for conviction after the first trial in August of 2008. For her second trial in 2009, Ms. Freels chose to try the matter to the court. She was convicted of first of first-degree murder at the conclusion of the second trial.

Presiding Judge: The Honorable Judge John Popovich

Phone: (303)-654-3514

2. Case Name/Number: People v. Alexander Pacheco - case # 09CR17

List name(s) and telephone number(s) for opposing counsel:

Megan Ring/Julia Lee - phone: (303) 444-2322

List namei 5) and telephone number(s] for co-counsel:

Joe Pacyga - phone: (720) 887-2 j 92

Briefly describe the case and your involvement

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I was lead counsel in this first-degree murder case, in which the 18 year old defendant murdered a 13 year old girl and left her body in a watery ditch in Broomfield. The body was not discovered until three months after she had been killed. The defendant pled guilty in April of 2010 to second-degree murder. The Judge accepted a stipulation to a 48 year sentence, which the defendant received.

3. Case Name/Number: People v. Jose Moya - Case # 08CR979

Presiding Judge: The Honorable Judge Vincent Phelps

Phone: (303-654-3550

List name(s) and telephone number(s) for opposing counsel:

Megan Downing - phone number: (303) 659-4274

List name(s) and telephone number(s) for co-counsel:

Trevor Mortizky - phone: 303-659-7720

Briefly describe the case and your involvement:

This case involved a burglary and vehicle theft ring led by Mr. Moya and his accomplice, Nathan Driver. I was lead counsel. Mr. Moya was indicted on numeraous counts of theft, vehicle theft, 10 theft and a count under the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act (COCCA). Mr. Moya eventually agreed to testify against Mr. Driver in exchange for a plea offer of one count of class II ( Felony Burglary. He received ten years in Community Corrections.

4. Case Name/Number: People v. Mark Irlanda - Case #02CR2548

Presiding Judge: The Honorable Vincent Phelps

Phone: (303) 654-3550

List name(s) and telephone numbens) for opposing counsel:

Thomas Carberry - phone # (303)722-3929

List name(s) and telephone numbens) for co-counsel:

None

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Briefly describe the case and your involvement:

I took over this case in October of2004, approximately a month prior to trial after the original prosecutor's mother became very ill and she had to withdraw from the case. The Defendant, Mark lrlanda, was a hockey coach accused of numerous counts of Sexual Assault on a Child concerning four children who had played on his hockey team. He was convicted at trial of One count of Sexual Assault on a Child - Position of Trust, class HI Felony and one count of Sexual Assault on a Child, class IV Felony. In January of 2005, he was sentenced to four years to lite in the Colorado Department of Corrections.

! am continuing to litigate this case. In July 20 Ht I filed a response brief in regards to the Defendant's claim of ineffective assistance of counsel under the Colorado Rules of Criminal

Procedure. The defense motion was recently denied by the court without a hearing.

5. Case NamefNumber: People v. Jacob Benjamin Woodyard ~ case #06CR3579

Presiding Judge.The Honorable Judge Edward C. Moss

Phone: (303) 654-3290

List name(s) and telephone number(s) for opposing counsel:

Jenness Duke - phone #(303 861-9600

List name(s) and telephone number(s) for co-counsel:

None

Briefly describe the case and your involvement:

The defendant was charged with Aggravated Robbery, class III Felony concerning an in-home invasion over a drug debt After lengthly negotiations the defendant pled guilty to Robbery, class IV Felony. Mr. Woodyard was sentenced to 20 years in the Department of Corrections as the result of a joint dispostion between this case and a Boulder Theft case, 06CR2029

17. Summarize your experience in adversary proceedings before administrative boards or commissions.

None

18. List any law related lectures, speeches, or other presentations you have given and any such books or articles you have authored.

-- Five times I have taught a two hour class on vehicle searches for the Adams County Sheriffs Police Academy. I have been doing this twice a year for over two years. 2008 to 2010

-- Taught a one hour training for prosecutors on the Victim's Rights Act - 2005.

-- Taught a one our trainng for prosecutors on closing arguments - 2004

Taught a two hour Search and Seizure class to the Thornton Police Department in 1999.

-- Taught a one hour training for prosecutors on expert witnesses - 2002

Taught a two hour course concerning the Iegistative up-date for the Northglenn Police Department in 1996.

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19. List your prior professional or business employment since completion of your formal education (include dates).

Office of the Colorado State Public Defender: Defense attorney from May of 1990 to February 1992.

District Attorney's Office, 14th Judicial District, prosecuting trial attorney practicing in Grand County, Colorado from February 1992 to July 1993.

District Attorney's Office, 17th Judicial District, Adams and Broomfield Counties, prosecuting attorney from July 1993 to the present. Includes supervisory experience from March 2002 to the present.

20. If you have not been employed continuously since completion of your formal education, describe generally what you were doing (include dates).

N/A

D. PROFESSIONAL AND PUBLIC SERVICE

21. List activities in professional associations, including offices held, committees, awards, honors, and citations (include dates).

~- Access Housing Board of Directors: March 2009 to the present.

-~ Was on the Board for the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) program through St. Anthony's North Hospital from 2004 to 2008.

-- Served on the Adams County Domestic Violence Task Force from 2003 to 2005.

-- Served on the Sexual Assault Task force for Adams County from J 998 to 2000.

-- Served on the selection committee for victims rights week award winners from Adams and Broomfi led Counties four times in the past seven years.

22. List your activities in civic and charitable organizations, including offices held, awards, honors, and citations (include dates).

Organized, directed and facilitated the High School Mock Trial compeutron for Adams and Broomfield Counties for the Februrary 2009 competition and the February 20 I 0 competition.

23. List all public offices to which you were appointed or elected (include dates served). Have you had any military or other public service? If so, please give details.

Officer, United State Air Force: February 1983 to March 1987: Military Police Officer, Shift Commander for Missle Security Flight for two years and then Shift: Commander of a Security/Law Enforcement Flight for two years. A Flight is approximately 40 people.

K REQUIREMENT TO COMPLY WITH JUDICIAL CODE OF CONDUCT

If appointed to the bench, you will be required to comply with the canons contained in the Colorado Code of Judicial Conduct.

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24. Are you familiar with the Commission on Judicial Discipline and its function?

! have read the Colorado Rules of Judicia! Discipline, including Rule 3: Organization and Administration of the Commission; and Rule 2: Jurisdiction and Powers of the Commission,

Yes, I do. This is discussed in the Colorado Code of Judicial Conduct, Cannon 3, sections 3.12 and 3.15. it is also governed by CR.S. sec. 24-6-202-203.

25. Do you understand a judge is required to file reports of compensation for quasi-judicial and extrajudicial activities in conformance with the Code of Judicial Conduct?

26. Do you understand that a judge must comply with the Public Official Disclosure Law (Section 24-6- 202, C.R.S.)?

F. MISCELLANEOUS

Yes, I understand there are certain things I must disclose to the Secretary of State within 30 days of my appointment.

27. If you are now active in partisan politics, would you cease such activity if you are appointed to judicial office?

I do not currently have an involvement.

28. Are you now an officer or director of any business organization or otherwise engaged in the management of any business enterprise? If so, please give details.

No, other than my current position as a Chief Trial Deputy

29. Colorado judges are expected to use computer technology for a wide variety of functions including word processing, legal research, case management, e-filing and e-mail. Do you personally use a computer for any of the purposes listed above or for similar purposes? If yes, describe the functions you perform and state how frequently you perform each function. If no, state whether you will participate in training to develop and maintain your personal skills in using computer technology.

I use a computer on a daily basis to do leagl research; to communicate in my office via E-mail; to write briefs and letters and to look up criminal histories and case statistics related to my job. I am very comfortable with computer technology,

30. Have you ever been cited for contempt of Court? If so, please give detail No

31. Describe how you spend your leisure time (including special interests, hobbies, reading preferences, vacation activities),

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I enjoy golf including golf vacations. jogging, news programs on cable and through NPR. I also enjoy Shakespeare and regularly attend performances of his plays.

32. List the names of no more than five individuals from whom you are requesting a letter of reference.

1. Don Quick, District Attorney, 17th Judicial District

2. The Honorable F. Michael Goodbee, District Court Judge, 17th Judicial District

3. Chief Trial Deputy Tim McCormack

4. Director of Vic tim/ Win tess, 17th Judicial District, Kate Horn-Murphy

5. The Honorable Judge Leroy Kirby, 1 th Judicial District

33. Please attach a statement not to exceed one page in length, double-spaced, discussing: (a) your knowledge of and experience with the court served by the judgeship for which you are applying; and (b) the reasons why you wish to be appointed to this vacancy and the qualities you would bring to the bench if appointed.

34. If you are applying for an appellate judgeship, you MUST submit a sample of your legal writing of not more than twenty (20) pages with this application.

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