Colorado’s second-highest court last week overturned a man’s sexual assault conviction because a Douglas County judge allowed a biased juror to serve.

Jurors convicted Dennis Floyd Ladd of multiple sex crimes in 2022, and Ladd was sentenced to an indefinite sentence of at least 25 years. During jury selection, his attorney asked the jury pool if they would use the case against Ladd if he chose to exercise his constitutional right not to testify.

One person said Ladd’s silence “looks really suspicious.” Another juror, identified as Juror T, acknowledged that he was not allowed to conclude Ladd was guilty unless Ladd told his side of the story.

But Juror T continued, “I guess if I had to lean one way or the other, it wouldn’t be impartial.” “You know, there’s one little thing; it creates a little gray area for me.”

“When you say gray area, do you mean guilt?” the defense attorney asked.

“Yes,” said Juror T. He explained that if he caught two of his children fighting in the living room and only one of them told him what happened, he would “bend” to the child who testified.

The defense attempted to distract Juror T from the case by pointing out that the man would remain silent towards Ladd. The prosecution objected, claiming “no follow-up was made” regarding Juror T’s ability to comply with the law.

In her decision, District Court Judge Theresa Slade appeared to mix Juror T with other members of the jury pool before refusing to excuse him. Juror T began serving on Ladd’s jury.

A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals later agreed with Ladd that Juror T’s answers showed he could not follow the law as directed.

“Juror T openly and directly agreed when asked if she would use Ladd’s silence against her by inferring guilt from Ladd’s decision not to testify,” Judge Stephanie Dunn wrote. In the opinion of October 24. “And because neither the prosecutor nor the court asked any clarifying questions at this point, Juror T gave no assurance to the court that he could set aside his clearly expressed opinion and apply the law as directed.”

The panel ordered a new trial. Although Ladd claimed the second juror was also biased, the Court of Appeals did not address that argument.

Here is the situation People are against Ladd.