Second Judicial District - Denver County Court Judge
Honorable Alfred C. Harrell
Retention Year: 1996
Recommendation: Retain
The Judicial Performance Commission of the Second Judicial District recommends that Judge Harrell BE RETAINED.
Judge Alfred Harrell was admitted to the practice of law in Colorado in 1971. He received a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1966 and his law degree from the University of Denver in 1971. Prior to his appointment to the Denver county court bench in 1985. Judge Harrell had extensive experience as a businessman and a lawyer in private law firms, including the U.S. Veteran’s Administration, Denver, Colorado from 1966 to 1969; International Business Machines, Denver, Colorado form 1969 to 1970; Honeywell Information Systems, Denver, Colorado from 1970 to 1972; attorney with the Law Offices of Irving P. Andrews, Esq. of Denver, Colorado from 1972 to 1974; attorney with Law Firm of Pacheco. Auer & Manzanares P.C., of Denver, Colorado from 1974 to 1976; and senior partner of the Law Offices of Alfred C. Harrell, Esq. of Denver, Colorado form 1976 to 1985.
Since his appointment to the bench, Judge Harrell has served in the traffic, civil, and criminal courts and is currently hearing cases in the criminal court.
Judge Harrell asks his staff and attorneys in his court to respect and treat the parties as customers of the court who have difficulties with their lives. Judge Harrell believes that his varied background and experiences help him to be a better judge. He also devotes much of his time teaching and sharing with lawyers methods to achieve excellence in the profession.
Evaluations of Judge Harrell and comments about him were generally very positive, praising particularly his overall performance, display of knowledge of the law, clarity in written and oral decisions, demeanor, maintaining control in the courtroom, courteousness, compassion, promptness in rulings and decisions and fairness in sentencing.
Written survey results showed 82.4% of attorneys favored retention; 13.7% of attorneys favored non-retention; and 3.9% of attorneys had no opinion.