Attorney Aimee Wagstaff of Lakewood, CO; ethical goblin

The state of Colorado provided Aimee H. Wagstaff with a law license in 2005 after she graduated from the University of Denver School of Law.

In one matter, U.S. District Court Judge Vince Chhabria imposed a $500 sanction on Aimee for discussing irrelevant and banned evidence in her opening statement in a lawsuit against the makers of the Roundup weed killer. (Debra Cassens Weiss)

In his sanction ruling, Judge Chhabria stated in part:

• “Ms. Wagstaff committed several acts of misconduct in her opening statement, many of which were “intentional and committed in bad faith.”
• “Ms. Wagstaff spoke to jurors about Phase 2 of the trial, despite a clear understanding among the parties that this would be off-limits.”
• “She spent a significant amount of time on Hardeman’s [her client’s] personal history and his discovery of the cancer even though this information is clearly not relevant to Phase 1.”
• “She quoted an internal memo that the judge had earlier ruled likely was to distract the jury and included excerpts on slides.”
• “She also referred to evidence despite pretrial rulings limiting its admission, according to the judge.”
• “Ms. Wagstaff wrongly tried to discuss Roundup cancer findings by an international group and improperly tried to tell the jury that the Environmental Protection Agency has had internal debate on the cancer issue.”

Judge Chhabria went on to state:

• “These were not slips of the tongue.”
• “They were included in the slides Wagstaff and her team prepared and used for her opening statement, and they were on issues that Wagstaff and her team have made clear throughout the pretrial proceedings they believe are important for the jury to hear at the same time it hears the evidence on causation. Nor were the violations borderline—they were obvious violations of both the letter and spirit of the court’s pretrial rulings.”

All that’s left now is to see if Aimee complies with State Bar Court rules and reports the $500 sanction to the

As we speak (ca. March 2019), Aimee practices with Andrus Wagstaff PC at 7171 West Alaska Drive in Lakewood, Colorado