Defender of life to the end of the line

Grand Junction attorney donated seven healthy organs

Ellen Miller, Special to the News

Published April 28, 2006 at midnight

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GRAND JUNCTION - A young deputy public defender who died this week of an apparent accidental gunshot wound was "passionate about her life and compassionate in her beliefs," her mother said Thursday, as one of her daughter's kidneys was being transplanted to a family friend in Iowa.

"She made sure her license was checked for organ donor," Nancy Richardson of Des Moines, said of her daughter Nicole, 27, who was removed from life support at St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction Wednesday when transplant teams arrived.

Nicole Richardson was wounded Monday night in her downtown apartment and kept on life support pending transplant.

Grand Junction Police spokeswoman Linda Bowman said officers concluded their investigation after interviewing friends and co-workers of Nicole Richardson and having an autopsy performed Thursday.

"We didn't learn anything from this autopsy that would lead us to believe this was anything other than an accidental, self-inflicted gunshot wound," Bowman said.

Nicole Richardson's father, Guy Richardson, of Jefferson, Iowa, said one of his daughter's kidneys went to a 56-year-old friend of his.

"She'd be reassured she's still helping people," he said. "The (transplant) teams took seven organs and the nurse told us all seven were in good shape and compatible for donation, and she'd never seen seven before."

Once the Richardsons reached Grand Junction and met the transplant teams at the hospital, Guy Richardson said, "We asked if we could designate someone. We didn't know, but they said yes, immediately."

Richardson said his friend has been on dialysis for 2 1/2 years and twice has been on an operating table being prepped for transplant "when things went wrong at the last minute."

Nancy Richardson, director of the Iowa Department of Transportation, said her daughter's liver was intended for a recipient in Kansas City, while a kidney and pancreas went to a patient in Denver.

Destinations for the other organs hadn't been determined when the Richardsons last talked to the transplant teams, they said.

Nicole Richardson, a graduate of the University of Iowa and University of Oregon Knight School of Law, began work with the Colorado Public Defender's Office in Grand Junction last October. It was her first job as a lawyer.

Guy Richardson said his daughter "came from a family of lawyers - my dad, grandfather and an uncle who became a district judge."

"It was in her last year of law school when she expressed interest in defense work. She was always interested in helping people," he said.

Nancy Richardson said that interest coincided with her daughter's growing passion about issues. She cited a paper Nicole wrote about a death penalty case.

The job of deputy public defender in Grand Junction was the only job Nicole applied for, and she left Iowa the day after learning she'd passed the bar exam, her parents said.

She had recently been promoted to work in district court and won an acquittal in her first felony trial last week.

"Nicole was our crusader for justice," said Steve Colvin, a deputy public defender who worked with Richardson.

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