Forum Post: Aspen Institute drops restraining order against leader of #OWS Aspen

The Aspen Institute and Music Associates of Aspen agreed Monday not to oppose Lee Mulcahy’s efforts to get a permanent protection order against him dismissed.

In return, Mulcahy will stop trying to get the Colorado Supreme Court to consider if the permanent protection order was reasonable.

Pitkin County Judge Erin Fernandez-Ely signed the protection order Dec. 12, 2012. It prohibited Mulcahy from entering the campus where the music tent and many of the Institute’s facilities are located. It also required Mulcahy to leave any public place where representatives of the organizations were present if they so requested. In other words, if Mulcahy and a member of the Aspen Institute’s board of directors were at the same restaurant in Aspen, Mulcahy would have to leave if requested or risk criminal prosecution.

Mulcahy hired a renowned Denver law firm last month to represent him in an effort to get the Colorado Supreme Court to review the case. Mulcahy’s attorney, Ty Gee, of Haddon, Morgan and Foreman, filed a motion that suggested he would challenge if the permanent protection order was warranted and reasonable.

Mulcahy is a former top ski school instructor who got into a very public and nasty dispute with his former employer, Aspen Skiing Co., in winter 2010-11. Mulcahy said he was targeted with disciplinary action and ultimately fired because he talked to other instructors about starting a union. Skico officials vehemently deny that. They said he was fired because of poor performance and breaking company rules multiple times.

Mulcahy also became critical of the Aspen Institute and Aspen Music Festival. The protection order was granted after Mulcahy wrote on the Institute’s Facebook page, “hey elites, you’ve divided us long enough. Be fair to us little people OR you’re gonna have pitchforks and guns at your door. Yea, some of us white trash at occupy aspen believe in the N.R.A. too. # Remember the Alamo. Raise a glass to the Old Aspen.”

Institute employees viewed it as a threat because of prior conflicts with Mulcahy, according to testimony in the hearing for the restraining order.

Gee filed a motion Friday to vacate and dismiss the protection order. The motion said the attorneys for the Aspen Institute and Music Associates said they wouldn’t oppose the action. In return, Mulcahy will inform the state Supreme Court prior to Dec. 22 that he is dismissing efforts to ask that the case be reviewed.

Gee’s motion said Mulcahy complied with the protection order over the past two years despite his legal challenge to it.

“We respectfully submit the order is no longer necessary,” Gee’s motion said. “Mr. Mulcahy would like to resume his pre-protection order life, including by contributing to this small community without the burden of a protection order.”

Fernandez-Ely signed an order to vacate and dismiss the protection order Monday.

What remains unclear is whether Mulcahy is allowed back at the Aspen Meadows Campus. An attorney for the Aspen Institute and Music Associates of Aspen couldn’t be reached Tuesday afternoon after The Aspen Times learned of the order.

Mulcahy declined comment on the decision but issued a statement via email that said, in part, “I look forward to both attending Rotary once again and sitting in the park with the rest of the town listening to the Sunday Summer concerts.”

Gee told The Aspen Times he would have to see what the position of the Institute and Music Festival is regarding Mulcahy attending events on the campus. He said he would “find it troublesome if they singled out Mr. Mulcahy” and prohibited him from attending public events.

scondon@aspentimes.com

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Colorado Supreme Court allows Mulcahy to enlist attorney for fight with Aspen Institute

Expand Photo Lee Mulcahy Aubree Dallas | Aubree Dallas/The Aspen Times Lee Mulcahy

Lee Mulcahy has lawyered up in his battle with the Aspen Institute and Aspen Music Festival and School over a permanent protection order barring him from entering their campuses and from contacting their “representatives” in any public place.

Mulcahy hired Haddon, Morgan and Foreman, a prominent Denver law firm in criminal defense and civil law. The firm represented professional basketball player Kobe Bryant in his sexual-assault case in Eagle County among other high-profile cases.

The seven justices of the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Dec. 3 that Ty Gee, an attorney with Haddon, Morgan and Foreman, would be allowed to file an amended petition stating why the court should review Mulcahy’s case. Mulcahy had represented himself since December 2012 in hearings in Pitkin County Court and Pitkin County District Court. He filed his own initial petition on why the Supreme Court should hear his case.

Gee’s motion suggested Mulcahy realized he needed representation by an attorney before the highest court in the state. Mulcahy is an artist and former ski instructor. He has a doctorate degree in humanities, focusing on 19th century French art and literature. He doesn’t have a law degree.

“While Mr. Mulcahy is undoubtedly well educated, the petition lacks the ‘sharp presentation of issues’ and argument to this Court that would demonstrate the need for certiorari review of the district court’s order,” Gee’s motion said. He argued that Mulcahy should be granted an extension to file an amended petition.

The attorneys for the Institute and Music School — Waas Campbell Rivera Johnson and Velasquez — argued that Mulcahy had ample time to hire an attorney before the deadline for submitting a motion. He had received one earlier extension. They asked the justices to deny a second extension that would allow Gee to file an amended petition.

“This is not a question of (Mulcahy) needing additional time. This is simply another effort to play games with Respondents, forcing them to spend the time and money drafting a second response brief,” said the attorneys for the Institute and Music School.

Their response also said that Mulcahy had been given several breaks in the legal proceedings by judges, but that the leeway had to stop.

“This Court and the courts below have excused error after error, both in the timing of pleadings and format in which they are filed. But at some point, even pro se litigants must comply with the rules, and it is simply unfair to burden the Respondents with Petitioner’s failure to follow clear procedures,” the attorneys wrote in a Dec. 1 response.

The Supreme Court justices ruled two days later that Mulcahy’s lawyers could file a new petition and, once they did, the petition that Mulcahy filed would be stricken. The Aspen Institute and Aspen Music Festival and School will have a chance to file a new response.

The order provided no reasoning for the decision.

The permanent protection order granted by Pitkin County Judge Erin Fernandez-Ely on Dec. 12, 2012, says Mulcahy must stay away from representatives of the Institute and Music School. He must leave public places such parks and restaurants when specifically asked to do so.

The order was granted after Mulcahy wrote on the Institute’s Facebook page, “hey elites, you’ve divided us long enough. Be fair to us little people OR you’re gonna have pitchforks and guns at your door. Yea, some of us white trash at occupy aspen believe in the N.R.A. too. # Remember the Alamo. Raise a glass to the Old Aspen.”

It was viewed as a threat by employees because of prior conflicts with Mulcahy, according to testimony in the hearing for a restraining order.

Gee argued in his motion that the Colorado statute allows judges to issue “breathtakingly broad” permanent protection orders, especially in “emotionally or politically charged circumstances,” such as in this case.

The Institute’s attorneys argued that the protection order is easy to understand and not too broad.

scondon@aspentimes.com