Judge Profiles

Judge Carter was appointed as one of the Garfield County, Colorado, judges shortly after graduating from law school in 1971, and retired from that position in March, 2004. In addition, he has practiced municipal, probate and real estate law first as a sole practitioner, and then as a member of Carter & Sands, P.C., Rifle, Colorado.

As County Judge, he handled all types of misdemeanor and traffic cases, civil restraining orders, and civil cases; and has presided over hundreds of jury trials and several hundred civil and criminal court trials. For several years, he was also a specially appointed District Judge in the Ninth Judicial District to hear and decide all juvenile delinquency cases in Garfield County. He has also acted as a settlement judge for District Court cases, an arbitrator, a hearing officer for local governments, and as a Special Master in probate matters. He has volunteered his time to create the Garfield County Teen Court, and is a licensed high school soccer referee. His law practice emphasizes municipal, real estate and probate law; representative clients of the firm have included a local bank and title company, the Towns of Eagle, Parachute, Rangely, and Dinosaur, the City of Rifle, and all of the incorporated municipalities in Mesa County except for Grand Junction. He has also been involved as a litigator in the District Court.

Judge Carter graduated from Boulder High School, then the University of Colorado with a degree in journalism; served in the Peace Corps in Colombia; and finally returned to attend and graduate from the University of Colorado School of Law.