{"id":2458592,"date":"2020-05-18T23:12:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-19T05:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/trial-for-lipsey-couple-stemming-from-high-school-party-set-for-december-in-aspen\/"},"modified":"2020-05-18T23:12:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-19T05:12:00","slug":"trial-for-lipsey-couple-stemming-from-high-school-party-set-for-december-in-aspen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/trial-for-lipsey-couple-stemming-from-high-school-party-set-for-december-in-aspen\/","title":{"rendered":"Trial for Lipsey couple stemming from high-school party set for December in Aspen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">While a District Court judge set a two-week trial date Monday for a couple accused of allowing minors to drink alcohol at their Aspen-area home last year, the actual trial wasn\u2019t the cause of his consternation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cThe jury calls will be the problem,\u201d said Judge Chris Seldin, noting the regular publicity about the case in Aspen\u2019s newspapers as well as the cloudy future of jury trials amid COVID-19 social-distancing restrictions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Nonetheless, the judge moved the case forward at the urging of prosecutor Don Nottingham and scheduled trial for Joseph Lipsey III, 57, and Shira Lipsey, 45, to begin Nov. 30 and run through Dec. 14. The judge has joined together the cases against the couple for trial purposes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The Lipseys each face 11 counts of felony contributing to the delinquency of a minor and three counts of misdemeanor providing alcohol to minors. Joseph Lipsey also faces an additional felony drug possession charge.<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\" readability=\"6\">\n<div class=\"row at-donation at-donation-mobile p-0\" readability=\"7\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2020\/03\/AT-logo-white.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\" onclick=\"handleDonationButtonClickMidArticle()\">Donate<\/button><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Prosecutors initially also charged both with one count of felony distribution of cocaine to a minor, a high-level felony with potential mandatory prison time, but the <a id=\"N0x232d120N0x2355ef0:N0x232d120N0x248b450\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/most-serious-drug-count-dropped-against-lipseys\/\">charge was later dropped<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">The charges stemmed from an early January 2019 party at the Lipsey home near Aspen Highlands.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">On Monday, the judge set 10 days for trial, though Nottingham estimated he\u2019d only need three days and Lipsey attorney Yale Galanter asked for five.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Both men, however, acknowledged that jury selection, when potential jurors are almost certain to be asked how much they know about the case from pre-trial publicity, is likely to take time. Galanter estimated the process could take a week or two.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In the end, Seldin drew the line at two weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cTwo weeks is about as much time as the court thinks is appropriate to set for this matter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Seldin also scheduled a two-day motion hearing in October, when Galanter said he will subpoena witnesses to testify.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Monday\u2019s hearing took place virtually, with the Lipseys, their attorneys and the judge all appearing by video conference that could be heard aloud in the Pitkin County District Courtroom. The only three people in the room were reporters for both daily newspapers and a court clerk. The Lipseys did not say a word aloud in court Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">At one point, Galanter asked Seldin if he\u2019d heard when evidentiary hearings, jury trials and regular court dockets \u2014 most of which have been postponed indefinitely by the chief justice of the state Supreme Court because of virus concerns \u2014 might begin again. The judge said he hadn\u2019t heard any news yet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Pre-trial publicity in the case won\u2019t be the only consideration during jury selection, however. Court officials likely also will have to deal with social-distancing protocols in a process that generally requires hundreds of candidates to be sent jury notices, show up at the courthouse, sit crowded together in the courtroom\u2019s wooden pews and await their turn in front of attorneys.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Joseph Lipsey IV \u2014 the couple\u2019s 20-year-old son \u2014 also was charged in connection with the January 2019 party. <a id=\"N0x232d120N0x2355f50:N0x232d120N0x248ba80\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/lipsey-pleads-will-spend-2-years-on-probation\/\">He pleaded guilty earlier this month<\/a> to a misdemeanor in connection with the party and a felony in connection with a separate case, and will spend two years on probation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Nottingham has not offered an explicit reason as to why he <a id=\"N0x232d120N0x2355fb0:N0x232d120N0x248bba0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/lipsey-attorneys-dispute-cocaine-charge\/\">dropped the cocaine charge<\/a> against Joseph and Shira Lipsey. <a id=\"N0x232d120N0x2356010:N0x232d120N0x248bc30\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/cops-aspen-parents-gave-coke-to-minor\/\">Court records indicated<\/a> a plate of cocaine, that eventually made its way to a 17-year-old, was being passed around their home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">In court in July when he announced the action, Nottingham told Seldin the \u201cinvestigation has been somewhat stymied\u201d and that he didn\u2019t have the evidence to back up the distribution of cocaine to a minor charge. He later told a reporter that police and the DA\u2019s Office did not err in the filing the distribution charges because evidence at the time indicated they were merited.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Later, however, investigators were unable to run down witnesses and verify details, Nottingham said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">Galanter praised Nottingham at the time for taking a second look at the charges, and said the dismissal \u201ctotally charges the complexion of the case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">\u201cWhen this case broke, all over the media was that the Lipseys are drug dealers,\u201d he said in July. \u201cThey were looking at a minimum eight years in prison. Now they\u2019re looking at probation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\"><a href=\"mailto:jauslander@aspentimes.com\">jauslander@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/trial-for-lipsey-couple-stemming-from-high-school-party-set-for-december-in-aspen\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>While a District Court judge set a two-week trial date Monday for a couple accused of allowing minors to drink alcohol at their Aspen-area home last year, the actual trial wasn\u2019t the cause of his consternation. \u201cThe jury calls will be the problem,\u201d said Judge Chris Seldin, noting the regular publicity about the case in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2458592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-17 15:15:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2458592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2458592\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2458592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2458592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2458592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}