Last week, Governor Polis signed HB26-1020 into law. It passed both chambers unanimously. And it started with a phone call from a grandmother named Holly. Holly Bennet came to Stout Law after Boulder police found a crushed pill in her purse while she was hospitalized in septic shock. A $2 colorimetric field test said it was cocaine. It wasn't. It was her prescription medication. The Boulder DA's office offered diversion if she'd plead guilty. Holly refused. She knew she hadn'

Saturday night, 63,004 people packed Empower Field at Mile High to watch Denver Summit FC play their first home match. That's not a typo. Sixty-three thousand people showed up for women's soccer in Denver, shattering the previous NWSL attendance record of 40,091 set by Bay FC last year. The Washington Spirit held Summit to a 0-0 draw, but nobody left disappointed. The energy inside that stadium was something else entirely. We're proud to say Stout Law had a hand in making thi

On March 6, 2026, Noah Stout presented at the Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute (RMLUI) Annual Conference at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. The panel, titled "Designing for Complete Neighborhoods: Municipal Roles in Community Benefit Agreements," brought together practitioners, academics, and law students to dig into how CBAs actually work — and what it takes to make them enforceable, equitable, and durable. The RMLUI conference is one of the premier land use

In December 2025, Denver City Council voted to approve the Santa Fe Yards stadium site for Denver Summit FC. Before that vote happened, Stout Law spent months at the negotiating table making sure the surrounding community had real, enforceable commitments — not just promises. We served as the attorney who drafted the Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) on behalf of West-East Neighborhoods United (WENU), the community coalition that negotiated directly with Denver Summit FC. Th

A Stout Law client recently made the news for something no one should have to face: being charged with cocaine possession based on a roadside drug test that she says produced a false positive. CBS Colorado covered her story. She's a disabled grandmother who was pulled over, tested with a colorimetric field kit, and charged with a felony. The test said cocaine. She says it wasn't. Her case isn't an outlier. It's a systemic problem. The Science (and the Problem) Colorimetric fi

This week, I will be testifying before the Colorado legislature in support of House Bill 26-1020, sponsored by Representatives Jennifer Bacon and Lindsay Gilchrist, with Senate sponsorship from Senators Matt Ball and Lisa Frizell. This bill is one of the most consequential pieces of criminal justice legislation Colorado has seen in years, and it doesn't cost the state a dime. If you've never heard of a colorimetric field drug test, you're not alone. Most Coloradans haven't. B

At the age of 14, Lawrence Montoya was coerced into a confession that cost him more than 13 years of freedom. A cognitively impaired...

(I recently had the privilege of representing nearly a dozen non-profit organizations in creating a far-reaching community benefits...

Eight years ago, thousands of Coloradans lacking documentation of legal residency in the U.S. placed their trust in our state government...

In 1937 Joe Arridy was executed by the State of Colorado for a crime he did not commit. In 2011, then-Governor Bill Ritter issued a...