Judge says Eagle County inmate jailed for ‘unreasonably lengthy’ time as cases drag on
In an appearance before Judge Johnathan Shamis on April 5, Eagle County inmate Mark Goodban expressed frustrations regarding his many cases before Shamis, five in total.
The cases date back to incidents starting in June 2022 when Goodban was arrested on charges of allegedly violating a protection order and assaulting a peace officer. Goodban was arrested two more times in August 2022, on a harassment charge and another case of allegedly violating a protection order. And in May, he was arrested again and charged with alleged harassment, intimidation of a witness or victim, and violation of a protection order. He has been in jail since that time.
In a jury trial in June, Goodban was found guilty of second-degree assault on a peace officer, but he has not yet been sentenced in that case because, in August, he was found not competent to understand the court proceedings.
Shamis says he believes Goodban is more competent than the August report suggested, and in November Shamis ordered a second evaluation of Goodban’s competency.
But that evaluation has not yet taken place, frustrating both Goodban and Shamis.
Support Local Journalism
“You’ve been in custody for a ridiculously, unreasonably, lengthy period of time,” Shamis said. “I’m going to authorize the court to pay for the evaluation so there is no further delay.”
Intent to appeal
At Goodban’s April 5 hearing, Shamis reviewed a motion from Goodban’s attorney to reinstate his bond. Shamis denied the motion but told Goodban he was welcome to appeal the decision once his competency was restored.
“I don’t know what the problem is right now with respect to your getting the second evaluation,” Shamis told Goodban. “Frankly, from the court’s perspective, I believe that the first evaluation was simply not competently performed, and I believe that (the Colorado Office of Civil and Forensic Mental Health), who is responsible for those evaluations, has the responsibility to providing the court with a complete evaluation. I don’t believe they’ve done so.”
Goodban told Shamis that he will probably appeal not only the bond reinstatement decision but the entire jury procedure in which he was found guilty of second-degree assault of a peace officer.
“The jury found me guilty based on they wanted to see more evidence,” Goodban told Shamis. “They could not see the evidence.”
In that incident, police were called to Goodban’s residence after a neighbor accused him of banging on their adjoining walls and yelling racial slurs, according to a police report from Avon Police Officer John Mackey. Mackey arrived on the scene and said Goodban was taken into custody without use of force, but later refused to move.
Goodban then “lunged with his forehead forward in a manner exacting to headbutting,” Mackey wrote in the police report. “Mr. Goodban then looked to me, lifted his left leg and struck me in the right leg, just below my knee.”
Shamis said he wants Goodban to be able to appeal that decision if he is able.
“If there’s any good news in any of this, it’s if there is a basis for you to appeal anything that happened during that jury trial — because everything’s been suspended because of the competency issue — you have time to raise all of those issues on appeal,” Shamis said.
Also facing civil case
Goodban is also facing a civil case involving his HOA in Avon and was recently deposed in that case.
Goodban’s attorney, Sean McCarthy, described Goodban’s incompetency evaluation in his criminal cases alongside the efforts to depose him in the civil case as a “paradoxical situation.”
Goodban said the judge in the civil case told him he had been incarcerated long enough, and the case should be terminated.
“There I might actually agree with him,” Shamis said.
But Shamis said Goodban’s conflation of his many criminal cases with his civil case is creating a problem with his defense.
“You’ve got five cases before me, and a case before Judge Dunkeleman, so you’ve got a lot of court activity going on all over, and you’re mixing all of them together,” Shamis said. “Part of the problem is you’re conflating different issues from different cases and you’re putting it all together as one, and it simply legally at the end of the day doesn’t make sense when I try to deconstruct what you’re saying as it applies to the cases that exist.”
Goodban said he had a computer that was taken away from him which he needs to better plead his case.
“Give me my laptop and I’d probably make more sense out of it, because I’d probably go and research it,” he said. “This is all coming from memory.”
Shamis said he does not have authority over how the jail operates.
“I can’t tell you what you can have access to in the jail, or what you can’t, or else they’ll put me in there with you,” Shamis said.
‘Tortured and tormented’
Shamis told Goodban he has been his own worst enemy throughout the process.
“Through your frustration and lack of cooperation, it’s created, from the court’s perspective, unnecessary delays, but also the court recognizes that you do have certain challenges — medical, mental health, whichever — that have made it difficult for you to allow the case to move forward,” Shamis said. “It has caused really unreasonable delays in your case, but until we resolve those competency issues, everything else is stayed.”
Goodban says he feels he’s been “tortured and tormented” by the process. Upon learning that he would have to remain incarcerated, Goodban lost his temper and was escorted out of the courtroom.
“We’ll continue the case, I think 30 days should hopefully be enough to get the evaluation done,” Shamis said, asking Goodban’s attorney to relay the message to him.
“I’m reluctant to bring Mr. Goodban back here; I think he was cursing and screaming in the hallway as he was being brought out,” Shamis said.
The case was continued to May 17.
