Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter is appointing the Recording Industry Association of America's top litigator to the Colorado Court of Appeals.

Richard Gabriel, who prosecuted the Jammie Thomas case, is a partner in the Colorado office of Holme Roberts & Owens. Gabriel, who assumes the $124,000 annual post July 1, was a convincing litigator in the Thomas case, the nation's first RIAA lawsuit against an individual for file-sharing that went to trial.

The Minnesota jury took five minutes to conclude Thomas was liable and a few more hours to ding her $222,000.

Thomas' attorney, Brian Toder, said he recently got a call from Colorado officials who were vetting Gabriel for the appellate post, which is one court above the state trial courts and one below the Colorado Supreme Court. "I gave him a very favorable rating. I think he's a standup guy and a good lawyer. And I think he would be a good judge," Toder said.

The Pirate Party of the United States took a different position. "Being the lead counsel in a multi-year campaign of extortion, pretexting, and sham litigation should not be rewarded with a seat in any court, except perhaps as a defendant," said the party's chairman, Andrew Norton.

UPDATE

In a telephone interview, the 46-year-old Gabriel said "I saw an opportunity to serve and thought I would throw my hat in the ring and see what would happen."

Gabriel added that "I love the practice of law. There are parts of it that I will very much miss. I'm looking forward to the next challenges and next phase in my life. I very much enjoyed being in a courtroom representing my clients to the best of my ability."

There was no immediate word on who would replace Gabriel as the RIAA's top litigator. The RIAA has sued more than 20,000 individuals for allegedly file sharing copyrighted music.

Hat tip: p2pnet

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