People v. Bialas.

2025 CO 45. No. 23SC520. Constitutional Law—Sixth Amendment—Right to Public Trial—Courtroom Closures—Waller Test.

June 23, 2025

The supreme court granted certiorari to determine whether the removal of all members of the public, including members of Bialas’s family, from the physical courtroom during Bialas’s jury trial violated her Sixth Amendment right to a public trial even though the proceedings remained accessible to the public virtually.
Following the principles set forth in Rios v. People, 2025 CO 46, __ P.3d __; announced the same day as this case, the court concluded that the availability of free, contemporaneous virtual access alone does not satisfy a defendant’s Sixth Amendment right to a public trial. Here, the trial court’s decision to remove all spectators from the courtroom and to fully close the courtroom for the remainder of the trial based on misconduct by some of the spectators was a nontrivial closure that violated Bialas’s Sixth Amendment right because the closure was not justified under the factors set forth in Waller v. Georgia, 467 U.S. 39, 48 (1984). Accordingly, the court affirmed the court of appeals’ judgment.