Colorado

The Local Legal Initiative provides local news organizations with direct legal services to pursue enterprise and investigative stories in their communities.

In Colorado, Local Legal Initiative Attorney Rachael Johnson has helped journalists and news organizations push for greater government transparency and accountability. She has represented journalists and newsrooms in several public records and open meetings cases, including matters concerning access to the disciplinary records of school district administrators, the recording of a city’s unlawful execution session, data about the certification and training of Colorado law enforcement officers, and more.

On behalf of media coalitions, Johnson successfully litigated back-to-back cases resulting in the release of police body-worn camera footage that led to the prosecution of police officers who allegedly placed people they were arresting in chokeholds. She argued in both cases that recordings of the incidents should be publicly released under a relatively new Colorado law that requires the public disclosure of audio and video recordings documenting incidents in which officers are accused of misconduct.

Johnson also helped six local news outlets obtain the recording of a closed-door meeting where board members unlawfully crafted a policy reinstating armed police officers to local high schools the day after a school shooting.

In a friend-of-the-court brief, a media coalition led by Johnson and the Reporters Committee supported The Denver Gazette’s successful fight against an unconstitutional prior restraint that barred the newspaper from reporting on records a court staffer inadvertently disclosed about a criminal case involving a police officer charged in connection with the 2019 death of 23-year-old Elijah McClain.

Learn more about the Local Legal Initiative’s impact in other states.