{"id":16529,"date":"2025-09-13T07:57:44","date_gmt":"2025-09-13T13:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-letter-to-readers-about-possible-conflict-of-interest-and-disclosure\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T19:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:37:16","slug":"a-letter-to-readers-about-possible-conflict-of-interest-and-disclosure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/a-letter-to-readers-about-possible-conflict-of-interest-and-disclosure\/","title":{"rendered":"A letter to readers about possible conflict of interest and disclosure"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=1021ffd2-67cc-50e7-8d45-7938c1865cdc&#038;function=cover&#038;type=preview&#038;source=false&#038;width=2000\" width=\"998\" height=\"537\" alt=\"\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/figure>\n<div class=\"naviga-element naviga-subheadline1\">To Our Readers,<\/div>\n<p>The Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline announced formal proceedings against Montezuma County Court Judge Ian MacLaren on Monday, alleging that he misused his power to hold a performative hearing, then lied during an inquiry into his actions.<\/p>\n<p>The article, written by staff writer Benjamin Rubin, also revealed MacLaren\u2019s account of his ties to former <em id=\"emphasis-e8f84c404826eefad2d97528d495c01b\">Journal<\/em> reporter Cameryn Cass, who had covered a hearing in which MacLaren opposed a diversionary agreement for Montezuma-Cortez Superintendent Harry (Tom) Burris.<\/p>\n<p>Cass on Monday night disclosed that they were friends. \u201cWe were never physically or romantically involved, she said in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-journal.com\/articles\/montezuma-county-judge-maclaren-could-face-removal-for-burris-hearing\/\" id=\"link-254d9bfa91c1a91d406e569e293325e2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rubin\u2019s article<\/a>. \u201cI was always just trying to get the story and be in the know.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The coverage of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.the-journal.com\/articles\/montezuma-judge-faults-superintendents-diversion-agreement-as-slap-on-the-wrist\/\" id=\"link-a756949ce16b7a1f7d9dfffb7da790ea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">diversionary hearing<\/a> was accurate and balanced, and reported the views of the judge and prosecuting and defending attorneys. Still, <em id=\"emphasis-58574d7740c8b513c59af7eb839fa131\">Journal<\/em> employees are expected to disclose possible conflicts of interest as they arise. We failed to do that.<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-d095c118d30fffc122f700c65740b158\">The Journal <\/em>also failed to follow lawful court protocol for photography by obtaining approval for a photo after it was taken, rather than before the hearing.<\/p>\n<p>We apologize for our lapses. We remain committed to delivering accurate, balanced news stories that uphold our editorial standards.<\/p>\n<p>Executive Editor Trent Stephens,<\/p>\n<p>Ballantine Communications Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our Readers, The Colorado Commission on Judicial Discipline announced formal proceedings against Montezuma County Court Judge Ian MacLaren on Monday, alleging that he misused his power to hold a performative hearing, then lied during an inquiry into his actions. The article, written by staff writer Benjamin Rubin, also revealed MacLaren\u2019s account of his ties [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16530,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-16529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16529"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20252,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16529\/revisions\/20252"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16529"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}