Colleen D. Holland
How Judge Holland decides
Patterns drawn from this judge's own signed orders. Every observation links to the order it came from.
What persuades
In assessing offensive collateral estoppel, she reads a general municipal-liability jury verdict as resolving the specific, narrower issue actually contested, and looks past a party's attempt to characterize a mixed jury instruction as leaving the issue undecided.
“Contrary to Defendants' arguments, these were not three distinct theories of liability—the operative question was always whether the City had 'a policy, custom, or practice for purposes of Section 1983,' and that is the question the Dempsey jury actually and necessarily decided.”
She treats a plaintiff's own proposed jury statement of facts, filed before trial, as capable of constituting a binding judicial admission, even where the surrounding legal dispute remains live.
“By proposing that these facts be read to the jury before any proof had been admitted, Preston was necessarily taking the position that they were accurate.”
On a Rule 608(b) credibility-impeachment motion, she applies the Second Circuit's multi-factor test evenhandedly, weighing remoteness in time against significance of the underlying misconduct, rather than treating any single factor as dispositive.
“Certainly, there are also factors that weigh against admissibility. The prior lie occurred in 2011, approximately 15 years ago... But on the whole, the Court concludes that the adverse credibility determination in People v. Barbosa is relevant and probative, and that limited cross-examination thereon should be permitted.”
Procedural preferences
She is skeptical of bifurcating civil-rights trials to separate individual-officer liability from municipal liability, preferring one trial with limiting instructions over doubling the number of trials, especially where the same evidence (officer training) is independently relevant to both theories.
“Bifurcation is the exception, not the rule, and the movant must justify bifurcation on the basis of the substantial benefits that it can be expected to produce... the Court is not persuaded that holding eight trials, rather than four, will promote efficient use of the Court's, parties' and jur[y's] time and resources.”
She routinely grants unopposed or lightly opposed scheduling accommodations, such as remote appearances and trial-date swaps between related cases, when they do not prejudice the other side.
“The Court accordingly grants Plaintiff's request. To accommodate the anticipated length of the trial in Gursslin, the scheduled trial date shall be moved forward by three days, to June 17, 2026.”
Cautions
She holds counsel to a high standard of accuracy in legal citations and pointedly notes on the record when a party's brief misquotes or misattributes case law, even while declining to sanction the error.
“The Court appreciates counsel's ability to address this matter without Court intervention. Of course, the Court expects all attorneys who, by signing pleadings, assert their accuracy, to read every case in full and to quote from them accurately before submitting papers to the Court.”
Signed rulings
A grounded sample of orders signed by this judge, with the verbatim dispositive language.
“At the trial in this matter, the City will be collaterally estopped from arguing that it did not have a custom, policy, or practice of authorizing its officers to use lethal force against dogs encountered during police operations without first assessing the actual threat posed by the dog.”
“Defendants' motion for reconsideration of Judge Wolford's denial of summary judgment on the basis of qualified immunity (Dkt. 99) is denied.”
“Preston's motion for leave to file a sur-reply (Dkt. 106) is also denied.”
“Preston's motion for permission to cross-examine Osipovitch on the adverse credibility determinations in People v. Barbosa and People v. Lofton (Dkt. 76) is granted to the extent set forth above.”
“For the foregoing reasons, Defendants' motions to bifurcate (Dempsey, Dkt. 119; Gursslin, Dkt. 140; McGill, Dkt. 68; Preston, Dkt. 53) are denied.”
“The Court grants Plaintiff's counsel's request to appear for oral argument on October 27, 2025, at 3:00 p.m. via remote means.”
“Plaintiff's counsel's request to appear virtually at the pretrial conference scheduled for March 26, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. is granted.”
“The Court accordingly grants Plaintiff's request. To accommodate the anticipated length of the trial in Gursslin, the scheduled trial date shall be moved forward by three days, to June 17, 2026.”
“For the reasons stated on the record, 115 MOTION to Amend/Correct is granted.”
“ORDER granting 2 Motion to Seal as to Jeramy Rivera (1). Signed by Hon. Colleen D. Holland on 6/26/2025.”
“ORDER granting 2 Motion to Seal Case as to Sealed Matter (1). Signed by Hon. Colleen D. Holland on 10/3/2025.”
“For the reasons that follow, the Court grants Plaintiff's motion to the extent that the matter is remanded for further administrative proceedings and denies the Commissioner's motion.”
“For the reasons that follow, the Court grants Plaintiff's motion (Dkt. 8) to the extent the matter is remanded for further administrative proceedings and denies the Commissioner's motion (Dkt. 11).”
Caseload & timing
From public federal docket records for this judge.
Judge Holland's docket to date consists of civil matters referred to her by the district's Article III judges or accepted by party consent for final disposition, and a criminal 'mj' docket of initial appearances, detention proceedings, and search-warrant matters. Her most developed body of independent work is a set of four related consent-jurisdiction Fourth Amendment cases against the City of Rochester and individual police officers arising from the shooting deaths of plaintiffs' pet dogs, one of which she tried to a jury verdict, and a recurring docket of consent-jurisdiction Social Security disability-appeal cases inherited from her predecessor, in which she has now issued ten of her own terminal rulings. She has also issued a substantive multi-motion order and a discovery ruling in two other inherited pro se and county-defendant civil-rights cases, and has ruled on contested pretrial-detention motions in her criminal docket.
Put Judge Holland's record to work
Ezel drafts and answers grounded in this exact profile: how Judge Holland actually rules, not a generic AI guess.
Opens in Ezel Pro. Every answer is grounded in Judge Holland's own signed orders and cites them.