Aurora Sentinel: Colorado’s vast judicial system has a dirty secret.

In fact, thanks to some luck and intrepid investigation work by Denver Post reporter David Migoya, we now know that Colorado courts — including those serving Aurora — have more than 6,700 dirty secrets.

A stunning Denver Post investigation revealed last week that the Colorado court system hides thousands of court cases from the public, mostly at the whim of prosecutors and judges.

The Post stumbled onto the story by doing what newspaper reporters do all the time: sit in court.

As an important aside, if you question the value of journalism to you and your nation, it’s this kind of work that makes it clear a nation without healthy newspapers is called “North Korea.”

While covering a metro-area court case, a reporter noticed that another murder case before the court had no record of scheduling. It had no record at all. A cursory inquiry turned into a bombshell investigation.

Colorado courts regularly “suppress” entire court cases for the sole purpose of keeping them from the public, the Denver Post investigation revealed.

No freaking kidding.

Migoya’s story reveals that Colorado is apparently alone in this repugnant and dangerous scam.

Every state allows for cases to be sealed, including Colorado. That requires some type of hearing based on serious and compelling reasons: national security, exoneration and endangering the lives of witnesses comes to mind.

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