Like last year, court rulings dominate the Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition’s 2022 list of transparency highs and lows, with perhaps the most closely watched decision coming nearly three weeks after a shooter killed five people and wounded more than a dozen others at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs on Nov. 19.

Responding to petitions filed by prosecutors and a media consortium that included CFOIC, an El Paso County District Court judge unsealed records of the accused killer’s 2021 arrest for allegedly terrorizing family members with a bomb threat.

The judge’s order let journalists and the public begin scrutinizing how law enforcement authorities and the judicial system handled the suspect’s previous arrest, while the fact of the sealing raised questions about a Colorado law that can hide arrest records from public view when charges have been dismissed.

State lawmakers defended the law, which is designed to help people with criminal records get jobs and housing, while Fourth Judicial District Attorney Michael Allen called on them to amend the statute so that prior arrests are automatically unsealed for those accused of new felonies, class three or higher.