Colorado Politics: An Alamosa County judge closed his physical courtroom to the public without documenting his reasons for doing so, prompting Colorado’s second-highest court on Thursday to reverse the defendant’s convictions and order a new trial.

In reaching its decision, a three-member panel of the Court of Appeals pointed to a recent ruling from the appellate court that recognized automatic reversal is not necessary when it is possible to remand the case to make additional findings retroactively justifying the courtroom closure.

However, that path was not available in the case of Gilberto Andres Montoya, the panel concluded, partly because of a scenario unique to the jurisdiction: the elected district attorney has since been disbarred and the trial prosecutor has also been disciplined for misconduct and left the office.

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