In Boulder, Colo., they make the Kelo land-grab look like the epitome of government adherence to the rule of law.

Despite owning the land, despite living only 200 yards from the property, despite hiking past it every week with their three dogs, despite spraying for weeds and fixing fences, despite paying homeowner association dues and property taxes each year, someone else had taken a shine to it. Someone powerful.

Former Boulder District Judge, Boulder Mayor, RTD board member - among other elected positions - Richard McLean and his wife, attorney Edith Stevens, used an arcane common law called "adverse possession" to claim the land for their own.

All McLean needed was to develop an "attachment" to it.

Undoubtedly, his city connections couldn't have hurt, either.

In the court papers, McLean and his family admit to regularly trespassing on the Kirlins' property.

They created paths. They said they put on a political fundraiser and parties on it (though not a single photograph of these events surfaced in court documents).

This habit of trespassing developed into an affection.

And McLean and Stevens got their neighbors land for free -- because it had been "abandoned."

All of this adds up to District Judge James Klein ordering the Kirlins to sign over about 34 percent of their 4,750-square-foot lot to McLean and his wife last month.

This is unconscionable. Richard McLean and Edith Stevens should be tossed in jail. What they've done is nothing less than theft. The judge that aided and abetted the theft, James Klein, should be removed from office and thrown in jail too.

Oh, and just for the record -- it doesn't make it into Harasanyi's story, it's only in the comments -- the politically connected thieves are Democrats.