A Colorado district court judge failed to disclose his intimate relationship with a woman whose felony drug case he presided over and used his position to help her with other cases in violation of state conduct rules, according to a complaint by state officials.
Judge Justin Haenlein plans to resign his post in the Eastern Plains’ 13th Judicial District, which includes Kit Carson, Logan, Morgan, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington and Yuma counties, as part of a pending agreement with the Independent Judicial Discipline Adjudicative Board.
This is the first case under a new state disciplinary system created by Amendment H, approved by voters in November in the wake of a judicial scandal that raised concerns about how judges are disciplined…