Opinion ID: 1210535
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 18

Heading: the district court properly denied wood's request to take a discovery deposition of the court.

Text: Wood claimed a need to depose the district judge who presided in this case as the consequence of an unreported meeting held between the district judge, defense counsel and the prosecutor shortly before the guilty plea. The district court denied the request. There is a prohibition against a judge testifying in a trial over which the judge is presiding. I.R.E. 605. Judge Winmill was the presiding judge in the post-conviction review proceedings. If his deposition were taken, he would become a witness in the post-conviction review proceedings and potentially would be required to recuse himself at trial. There are several factors that weigh strongly against such a result. Consistent with the decisions of other jurisdictions, this Court would not permit inquiry into the thought process or the grounds upon which a case was decided by a judge. See United States v. Morgan, 313 U.S. 409, 422, 61 S.Ct. 999, 85 L.Ed. 1429 (1941) (a judge's thought process relevant to judicial decisions is not within the purview of an examination). Public policy and convenience prohibit judges from being called as witnesses to state the grounds upon which they decided former cases. People v. Drake, 841 P.2d 364, 367 (Colo.Ct.App.1992). Consequently, Wood would not have been allowed to inquire into what Judge Winmill thought when he decided the case. The question then is whether there were facts not in the record that were relevant to the post-conviction review proceedings and were not otherwise available to Wood. There has been o such showing by Wood. The district court properly denied the request for deposition.