The Denver Post
Text of judge's apology
Friday, July 30, 2004 - Here is the full text of District Judge Terry Ruckriegle's apology Friday for court mistakes in which sealed information in the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case was released to the public. The text is from a draft transcript by the court reporter.
I want to express my sincere apology to the people of Eagle County, the people of Colorado, and the people who have come here from far away for the mistake made by the courts this week. Several years ago when this court began sponsoring classes called parenting with love and logic, a man named Jim Fay taught me, and thousands of other parents, that when children and people make mistakes, they should not be castigated and ridiculed. He called those mistakes SLOs, significant learning opportunities, where the people making the mistakes and those around them learned lessons in life and grew from them as part of their development. Long after all of the people who have flocked to Eagle County from around the country, and some around the world, have returned to their own communities, all of us who work for this court and courts around this country will be here, in sometimes empty courtrooms, to make some of the same decisions based upon the laws and constitutions that we are sworn to uphold. For all of those who come through these doors, victims and defendants alike, whose names are never known and never sought, I can only assure you that I have learned lessons from these mistakes, and that we will give our best human effort not to let it happen again. Lastly, I want to commend the responsible media who have abided by not only the spirit of the law, but the intended directions of the court. Again, I apologize. |