People v. Ryan L. Kamada. 20PDJ057. August 31, 2020. The Presiding Disciplinary Judge approved the parties’ conditional admission of misconduct and disbarred Ryan L. Kamada (attorney registration number 36984). The disbarment took effect August 31, 2020.
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.
Through this conduct, Kamada violated Colo. RPC 1.9(c)(2) (a lawyer who has formerly represented a client in a matter shall not use information relating to the representation except as permitted or required by the Colorado Rules of Professional Conduct); Colo. RPC 8.4(b) (it is professional misconduct for a lawyer to commit a criminal act that reflects adversely on the lawyer’s honesty, trustworthiness, or fitness as a lawyer in other respects); Colo. RPC 8.4(d) (it is professional misconduct for a lawyer to engage in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice); Colo. C.J.C. Rule 1.1(A) (a judge shall comply with the law, including the Code of Judicial Conduct); Colo. C.J.C. Rule 1.2 (a judge shall act at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the independence, integrity, and impartiality of the judiciary, and shall avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety); Colo. C.J.C. Rule 1.3 (a judge shall not abuse the prestige of the judicial office to advance the personal or economic interests of the judge or others, or allow others to do so); Colo. C.J.C. Rule 2.9 (a judge shall not engage or consider ex parte communications except as allowed by the Code of Judicial Conduct or otherwise authorized by law); and Colo. C.J.C. Rule 2.10 (a judge shall refrain from making public and nonpublic statements that interfere with or are inconsistent with the fair and impartial administration of justice).
The case file is public per C.R.C.P. 251.31.