Former Judge Jacqueline St. Joan in Conversation With Former Criminal Defense Attorney Jeanne Winer
Category: Event Calendar
Date and Time
- Wednesday, Jul 22, 2026 6pm - 7pm
Location
Old Firehouse Books
232 Walnut Street
Details
Join us at Old Firehouse Books as we welcome former Judge Jacqueline St. Joan as she discusses her book, Your Verdict: A Judge's Reckoning with Love and Loss! Jacqueline will be joined by former criminal defense attorney Jeanne Winer in store on Wednesday, July 22nd from 6:00-7:00 PM. Books are available for purchase both online and in store, but we cannot ship internationally. We can't wait to see you there!
About Your Verdict: A Judge's Reckoning with Love and Loss:
In this clear-eyed, deeply human memoir, Jacqueline St. Joan traces two inseparable journeys: a family fractured by the fallout of an interracial marriage, and a public life shaped by difficult decisions made from the bench as a controversial judge in 1990s Denver. Moving between the intimate and the institutional, she reveals how rejection, perseverance, and moral clarity forged a lifelong commitment to justice—not as theory, but as lived responsibility.
With prose that is both lyrical and unsparing, this memoir explores where law meets love, activism meets faith, and truth demands a voice regardless of consequence. It is not a story of easy reconciliation or tidy victories, but of conscience tested over time and authority earned the long way.
For readers who have practiced, taught, volunteered, written, and wrestled with the moral weight of their choices, this book offers recognition, courage, and writing you can trust.
About Jacqueline St. Joan:
Jacqueline St. Joan is a former Denver County judge and University of Denver Law Professor, whose life story spans the civil rights movement, second-wave feminism, and the modern courtroom. In 1967, only days after the Supreme Court decided Loving v. Virginia, she married interracially in Virginia, an act that led to estrangement from her family and a life shaped by social change, single motherhood, bi-sexual relationships, and feminist activism. Years later, her unconventional past resurfaced when she became a judge and some of her rulings provoked public controversy. St. Joan is the author of two novels, a collection of short fiction, and a poetry collection. Her memoir, Your Verdict: A Judge’s Reckoning with Law and Loss, explores the collision between private life and public authority. She lives and writes in Colorado.
About Jeanne Winer:
Jeanne Winer was an attorney in Colorado for thirty-five years, specializing in criminal defense. A long-time political activist, she received the Dan Bradley Award from The National LGBT Bar Association, and a B’nai Brith Anti-Defamation League civil rights award for her trial work in Romer v. Evans, a landmark civil rights case that preceded and paved the way for the Obergefell decision in 2015, which legalized same-sex marriage throughout the United States.
Her first novel, The Furthest City Light, won a Golden Crown Literary Society award for best debut fiction. Her second novel, Her Kind of Case, was a finalist for a Colorado Book Award and earned three starred reviews from Kirkus, Library Journal, and Booklist. Her newest novel, Everyone’s Doing Their Best, will be published in 2027. Winer is a martial artist who holds a third-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do. For the past eight years, she has been studying Tai Chi, which is easier on the body. Though she was born and grew up in the Boston area, she now lives mainly in Boulder, Colorado with her partner and cat, but spends a number of months each year writing in Taos, New Mexico.
This event is produced by an outside organization and is unaffiliated with the Downtown Development Authority. The DDA website serves as a marketing outlet for events and promotions occurring inside the Downtown boundary. For questions regarding the event, please contact the event producer.
