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Young attorney joins Moffat County DA’s office

Collin Smith

— Marty Galloway, a 25-year-old who graduated from the University of Colorado in May, soon will get his chance at a childhood dream.

Galloway will start Monday as a deputy district attorney for the 14th Judicial District Attorney’s Of­­fice in Craig.

“This is some­thing that I’ve wanted for a long time,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to serve the community. If you asked me what I wanted to do in fifth grade, I would’ve said I wanted to be a state department analyst.”



When Galloway settled on going to law school to be an attorney, he tried not to lose sight of his ambition to help people.

“I didn’t want to be that kind of lawyer that was going to help two corporations decide who gets this million dollars,” he said. “I didn’t want to end up being someone that just helped rich people get richer.”



District Attorney Elizabeth Oldham said her office is happy it was able to recruit someone with such a commitment to duty and someone who had prosecution experience.

Galloway was an intern with the District Attorney’s Office in Adams County.

“Fortunately for the DA’s office, we got a lot of good applications this time, I think because of the economic situation,” Oldham said. “It was pretty exciting to get somebody who had some experience in the field.”

Deputy District Attorney Jeremy Snow, who is the longest tenured practicing attorney in the Moffat County office, said Galloway should be a good fit.

“We’re really excited to have Marty,” he said. “He’s very conscientious, a very good guy. He’s wanted to be a DA; he’s wanted to be a prosecutor for a long time.”

Snow said Galloway will start by handling all misdemeanors and most Moffat County Court cases.

Snow and Deputy District Attorney Jon Pfeifer will split the felony and Moffat County District Court cases.

Deputy District Attorney Patrick Welsh, who has worked in the Craig office for the past several months, moved to the Steamboat Springs office Jan. 4.

Oldham said Welsh has lived in Steamboat Springs while working in Craig, and it seemed natural he should work there.

She added that she recognizes some may see a turnover problem in Moffat County — multiple attorneys have started and left work there in the past year — but she thinks the office operates well.

“We’ve been fortunate because Patrick would have stayed long-term if the position in our Steamboat office didn’t come up,” Oldham said. “Jeremy and Jon are great. They work hard, they’ve been there a while, and they both have families and are dedicated.”

Welsh’s departure was bittersweet for the Craig office, Snow said.

“We’re definitely disappointed, not just as an office,” he said. “He was a great attorney, hard-working, but he was also a good friend to everyone here.

“We’re sorry to see Patrick go. Like I said, he was a friend of everyone here, but we’re also excited to get Marty on board and work with him.”

Galloway said he’s excited to start work, too, not just because he’ll begin a career as an attorney, but because living in Craig will be a new experience compared to growing up in the Denver area.

“I look forward to having a chance to try the small-town lifestyle,” he said, adding that he visited during the past two weeks to interview and find an apartment. “I liked the feel of it. I was going around town looking for furniture, and every store I stopped in I talked to the owner. I like that.”


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