Matt Karzen – Current appointee will run for District Attorney of the 14th Judicial District

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2035

The Elections Division of the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office has announced that Matt Karzen, current appointee and unaffiliated candidate for District Attorney of the 14th Judicial District, has submitted the required number of valid signatures to appear on the November 3 general election ballot.

Karzen is the only candidate for the 14th District Attorney, a position which serves Grand, Routt, and Moffat counties. He was appointed to the position in June, 2019, following the previously announced resignation of elected DA Brett Barkey. Karzen, then Assistant DA, was recommended by Barkey and officially stepped into his new position on July 1, 2019.  
Karzen received his juris doctorate from the University of Denver and took his first job as deputy district attorney in Grand County between 1995 and 1997. He later served as a prosecutor for Arapahoe County’s Child Sex Assault unit and for the Colorado Attorney General’s Gang Prosecution Unit. He spent time in Athens, Georgia as a chief assistant DA, working primarily on homicide, before returning to the 14th. As District Attorney of the 14th Judicial District, he headed the investigation and current prosecution of former Kremmling Police Chief Jamie Lucas.

On August 28, Karzen was also nominated for a district court judgeship created by the retirement of the Honorable Shelley A. Hill, who served as 14th District Judicial judge in Steamboat Springs since 2006. The Fourteenth Judicial District Nominating Commission nominated three candidates for this judgeship, to begin January 12, 2021. Under the Colorado Constitution, the Governor has 15 days from August 31, 2020, within which to appoint one of the nominees. The other two nominees are Sandra Gardner of Hamilton, and Erin Wilson of Steamboat Springs.
Comments regarding any of the nominees may be sent via e-mail to the governor at gov_judicialappointments@state.co.us.