Eighteenth Judicial District - Arapahoe County Court Judge
Honorable Alex Bencze
Retention Year: 2012
Recommendation: Retain
Reports:
2012 Retention Survey Report (PDF)
2011 Interim Survey Report (PDF)
2009 Interim Survey Report (PDF)
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The Eighteenth Judicial District Commission on Judicial Performance by unanimous vote recommends that Judge Alex Bencze BE RETAINED.
Judge Bencze received his undergraduate from the University of Indiana and his law degree from the University of Denver law school in 1979. He worked in private practice and in the Public Defender’s Office. Judge Bencze has served on the bench for 18 years including four and a half years as a District Court Magistrate. Judge Bencze was appointed to the Arapahoe County Court bench in August of 1998. Currently, Judge Bencze is hearing a docket of 100% misdemeanor cases.
Judge Bencze serves on the county bench in Arapahoe County where he is one of the most respected judges in the court. He is known to be fair, well organized and to be a man who listens. He runs a highly efficient docket under frequently extremely difficult and demanding conditions. He is highly respected and is known for his care in explaining the legal system in understandable terms to the many people who appear before him. His community service activities involve the court system and the improvement of the legal system. Presently, he developed an Intermediate Sanctions Approach to repeat offender domestic violence cases, which allows the court to impose an intermediate sanction, short of probation revocation. The Commission conducts extensive research in making this recommendation, including use of surveys conducted on the judge, interviews with people involved in the courtroom, personal observations in the courtroom, and the judge's self-evaluation.
Of those attorneys surveyed about retention, 87% recommended to retain, 9% not to retain, and 5% were undecided or didn’t have enough information to make a recommendation. Of those expressing an opinion to retain or not to retain, 91% recommended to retain and 9% not to retain. Of all non-attorneys surveyed, 89% recommended to retain, 5% not to retain, and 6% were undecided or didn’t have enough information to make a recommendation. Of those expressing an opinion to retain or not to retain, 95% recommend to retain and 5% not to retain. (These percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.) The Commission finds that Judge Bencze is an excellent judge and will continue to serve the Eighteenth Judicial District with the highest quality.