The city of Durango has a new full-time municipal judge.
Durango City Council appointed Matt Margeson to municipal judge on Tuesday, ending a short search for a full-time judge to take the reins after phasing out two part-time positions at the close of the year.
Margeson, who was sworn in Wednesday at City Hall, served for nine years in the district attorney’s office for the 22nd Judicial District, which has jurisdiction in Montezuma and Dolores counties. He was the elected district attorney for about two and a half years. In February, Gov. Jared Polis picked him to preside as the Dolores County court judge.
Margeson has also recently assisted Durango City Attorney Mark Morgan in the city attorney’s office. That gave him valuable insight into where the municipal court excels and where it needs work.
In an interview with The Durango Herald, he said the court struggles to keep up with people who keep committing offenses, because it doesn’t have a system to ensure they show up for court hearings.
Margeson observed as long as people studiously avoided going to court, they wouldn’t face consequences.
During an interview with City Council earlier this month, Margeson showed he has a finger on the pulse of the city’s efforts to address homelessness. At the time, he said he would start forming a specialty court for repeat offenders if appointed.
Municipal court proceedings often revolve around small offenses such as traffic tickets, careless driving and lacking proof of car insurance. But addicts and chronically unhoused people who have addiction issues take up a disproportionately large amount of the court’s time and resources.
Margeson said 90% of people in municipal court are there for parking tickets. But the last 10% of people take up, by his estimate, 70% to 75% of court resources in Durango.
If a specialty court were in place to address people’s addiction issues, it would be a resource for struggling individuals and help keep them away from county or district court, he said.
“Why not have programs here? Why not have resources here?” he said. “And why not have tools here available to those individuals to assist them and to assist the city in gaining control of what’s become a problem?”
He said people with persistent mental health and substance abuse issues – which are common among unhoused people – who keep landing back in court require extra attention.
He proposed having separate dockets, one for minor traffic offenses and the other for more persistent offenses such as trespassing.
The mixed docket currently used by the city makes it hard to give each case the appropriate focus, but Margeson said a specialty court won’t be implemented overnight.
The city needs buy-in from the community to make a specialty court as robust as it can be, Margeson said. He said the city lacks a probation department and a monitoring system to ensure people are meeting obligations set for them by the court, in addition to a shelter and mental health services.
The best approach is to start slowly and make changes as necessary, he said.
Margeson has served on both sides of the bench with experience as a defense attorney, prosecutor and judge. He said there’s always room for growth, and a municipal judge should accept feedback from law enforcement, City Council and staff members, the city attorney’s office and even people in the justice system.
Margeson has been happily married 16 years. His wife is a kindergarten teacher and they are raising their 8-year-old daughter, who is “one of the most awesome people I get to interact with daily.”
His daughter started ski lessons at Purgatory Resort in January and he’s amped to hit the slopes himself.
cburney@durangoherald.com
