Wednesday evening of April 3rd, a day and a half before Assembly, my phone rang. A person unknown to me left a message asking me to run for District Attorney…a thought that had never crossed my mind. My wife suggested I call them back, and I said, “Really?” I called and said, “wow, this is a big step, let me pray on it.” I was told to hurry, as I had to be registered 24 hours before the Assembly, so by noon or so the following day. I was also informed that most delegates were not planning to attend, as they were seeking change, but there was no alternative to the incumbent. My wife and I prayed and the next morning, I kept hearing from the Holy Spirit that just the fact that people wanted to nominate me meant I had already won. Well, that was it. I registered and we went to Assembly on Friday, April 5th. The incumbent, who had collected signatures to access the primary ballot, was not there. I was told that once delegates learned I was registered, they made the trip to Pueblo to make the voice of the grassroots people known. Out of 200 plus possible delegates, over 130 were in attendance and I received the vote of that body, comprised of many awesome, God-fearing patriots.
My background: My wife and I both grew up on Long Island in New York. I went to college, starting in military school on an Army scholarship, and attended Airborne School at Fort Benning in 1983. My wife and I met on a blind date in 1989, while I was finishing law school at Touro College of Law in NY. I took the bar in 1989 in NYC along with 8000 others, and John Kennedy, Jr. I did not realize it was him until I asked the gentleman sitting at my table why there was a large group of women about 50 feet from us. He said it was because John Kennedy, Jr. was taking the bar😊 I am licensed to practice law in NY, CT, and CO. My wife and I married in 1990 and left for active duty two weeks later.
I spent much of the first half of my military career as a JAG prosecutor (trial counsel) and a year and a half as defense counsel (TDS). During the second half of my career, the Army sent me to George Washington University, where I earned a master’s in law (LLM) in Intellectual Property Law and Information Technology Law. I was assigned to the NSA where I was the legal advisor for cyber security operations for combatant commands. I spent some time in Iraq, and provided legal advice in space operations, space negation related to satellite communications, and international law. As the legal advisor, I helped stand up what is now CYBERCOM.
In 2008, I was sent to Army Space Command, here in Colorado. There, I helped stand up what is now Army Cyber. In 2010 my wife informed me she was not leaving Colorado, and I needed to retire from the military and find a job. I sharply saluted and retired. I spent the next six years or so engaged in cyber security providing advice from a legal perspective, conducting risk assessments, advising on how to legally “hack back” in self-defense, advising company executives, and speaking at many conferences around the world.
In 2017 a friend told me that the courts were opening the contracts for court appointments, and asked if I wanted to get back in the courtroom. I told him, “Absolutely, I loved the courtroom.” I did not realize I would be a court-appointed attorney representing parents whose children had been removed from their home by DHS in dependency and neglect cases. I can honestly say the last eight years representing parents has been extremely rewarding, especially helping families get back on their feet and have their children returned to them safely. It has also been emotionally draining. I went from four cases the first month to 95 cases within eight months. I was later told that was highly unusual. Fortuitously, when the call came asking me to run for District Attorney, I was down to only two cases.
My wife , of almost 34 years, and I have five children. Three adult children and two elementary school aged children. Six months before I began representing parents, we had to rush to Alabama to prevent our niece and nephew, who were 2 years old and 8 months old at the time, from being placed in foster care. Now, eight years later, we have been blessed to adopt them.
That is our story. Having lived in Colorado for 16 years now, with both adult children and young children, we share the concerns of those in our community and actively seek to make it better place.
