{"id":43481,"date":"2021-12-01T19:43:30","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T02:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-gets-new-municipal-court-judge\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:13:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:13:53","slug":"cortez-gets-new-municipal-court-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-gets-new-municipal-court-judge\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez gets new municipal court judge"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Beth
Beth Padilla was sworn in as a Cortez Municipal Court judge on Nov. 18.<\/span>Courtesy City of Cortez<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Beth Padilla was sworn in as a Cortez Municipal Court judge on Nov. 18 after being appointed at a Nov. 9 City Council meeting, according to a city news release.<\/p>\n

She replaces James Shaner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope to bring perhaps a different view to the bench,\u201d Padilla told The Journal<\/em>. \u201cI\u2019d like to balance rehabilitation with community safety, which is a difficult balance to strike with the resources available through municipal court.\u201d<\/p>\n

Padilla, a native of a small town in Indiana, Padilla moved to Colorado for law school at the University of Denver.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s been at home in the West ever since, and in 2014 moved to Southwest Colorado with her husband, Paul.<\/p>\n

They own Padilla Law<\/a> in Mancos.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m committed to Montezuma County,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve built our lives here. Our law firm is here. And I\u2019m dedicated to doing what\u2019s best for the people of Montezuma County and for the city of Cortez.\u201d<\/p>\n

With more than 10 years of experience in law, Padilla is licensed in Colorado and New Mexico, and she feels prepared for her new job.<\/p>\n

\"Cortez
Cortez City Clerk Linda Smith swears in Beth Padilla in as Cortez Municipal Court judge on Nov. 18.<\/span>Courtesy City of Cortez<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Although the pandemic has challenged courts, Padilla is optimistic about the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has caused some delay for some people, but things are getting back to normal compared to where they have been in the past year and a half,\u201d She said. \u201cWe are having court in person. The jail is accepting individuals. I think it\u2019s getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Padilla is current president of the Four Corners Bar Association.<\/p>\n

Her career has taken her before the Colorado Court of Appeals, and, in her formative years, to Buenos Aires, Argentina, for an internship at an international law firm. She also has studied in Mexico, Peru and Spain.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s fluent in English and Spanish, and she\u2019s drawn to the outdoors. In Indiana, she participated in 4-H for 10 years; here, she enjoys mountain biking and big game hunting.<\/p>\n

Court proceedings take place once a week at 9 a.m. on Mondays at the Cortez Municipal Court, 123 Roger Smith Ave.<\/p>\n

The court sees nearly 1,000 cases per year, the city news release said.<\/p>\n

For information about the court, contact Court Administrator Carla Odell at 970-565-7952 or codell@cortezco.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Padilla wants to bring a new perspective to court<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,133,28,1646,167,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-courts","tag-headlines","tag-judge","tag-local-news-lead","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43481","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=43481"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43481\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85719,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43481\/revisions\/85719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43481"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}