Magistrate Disbarred
A conditional admission has led to a Colorado disbarment described on the web page of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge
Kamada violated several Rules of Professional Conduct and Judicial Conduct while serving first as a county magistrate and then as a district court judge. While Kamada served as a magistrate, he purchased marijuana from a friend on multiple occasions. He also looked up information on a third party’s conviction for the same friend. Over a group text chain, Kamada disclosed information about a former client and her case. He discussed with his friends several cases over which he presided, and he made disparaging remarks about a lawyer who appeared before him. Kamada also emailed his friends photographs of his work area that included a computer screen showing case numbers, litigants’ names, events, and document titles.
As a district court judge, Kamada discussed with his friends cases over which he presided, emailed photographs he took of parties and court documents, and attempted to look up case information for a friend. When Kamada reviewed a warrant request by the joint drug task force, the law enforcement officer noted that Kamada was connected to members of the warrant subject’s social media network. The officer took the warrant to the next judge on the on-call list. Kamada discussed the warrant with a friend, who then informed the warrant subject. The friend asked Kamada for updates on the investigation, and Kamada fabricated information in an attempt to convince his friend to avoid the warrant subject. Kamada pleaded guilty to the offense of obstruction of proceedings before a federal department or agency in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1505 for his actions related to the warrant.
Greeley Tribune reported on the charges
In a video teleconference hearing Tuesday, Kamada explained he was the on-call judge in the evening hours of April 23, 2019, when an investigator asked him to review a search warrant for someone he knew and a mutual friend of his best friend, Geoffrey Chacon, who was hired in the summer of 2019 to serve as the assistant principal at Prairie Heights Middle School and worked as a teacher and coach in Greeley prior to that. Chacon resigned about a month after he was hired.
The subject of the warrant appears to have been Alberto “Beto” Loya, a well-known businessman and philanthropist.
Kamada said he recused himself from signing off on the warrant, due to his familiarity with Loya and mutual association with Chacon. Out of fear of the impacts to Chacon’s reputation, he warned Chacon to stay away from Loya, Kamada said Tuesday.
Kamada knew Loya since high school, and the two served together on the board of directors for the Weld County Latino Chamber of Commerce, according to a stipulation of facts in the plea agreement.
Kamada recused himself from the case after a task force officer pointed out to Kamada that he was friends with Loya on Facebook, a release from the U.S. Department of Justice states. Early the next morning, Kamada called Chacon and told him that law enforcement was “watching” Loya’s house, car and phone, according to the release. Kamada then told Chacon to “stay away” from Loya.
That disclosure prompted Chacon to repeat the warning to Loya. As a result, Chacon distanced himself from Loya and his associates and instructed an associate of Loya’s to correspond with Chacon using their work phones rather than their personal phones. Chacon pleaded guilty in November to destroying evidence in the investigation, specifically May 4 text messages between himself, Loya and Kamada.
Loya slowed down the pace of his operation, according to court records, and cleaned his house of evidence relating to drug activities.
Chacon later asked Kamada about the investigation through an online Xbox video game, which the two played multiple times per week. Kamada said he fabricated that the investigation was ongoing even though he had no further knowledge beyond the call about the search warrant.
Prior to the disclosure, on Jan. 27, 2019, Kamada and Chacon were texting about a fight Loya got into with another drug dealer, according to court records. Chacon told Kamada about the fight and said the second dealer “was all drunk n high on coke.”
Kamada responded that the second dealer “(n)eeds to grow up” and “(i)f he wants to play big boy stuff, then he needs to be a big boy,” court records state. Kamada began in his role as Weld District Court judge Jan. 1, 2019.
(Mike Frisch)