Harassment is a Class 3 misdemeanor. Harassment charges often occur in the domestic violence context, but are not limited to domestic violence situations. A conviction for harassment can result in a sentence of imprisonment in the county jail of up to 6 months.
In order to prove the crime of harassment, the prosecutor must establish that you intended to harass, annoy, or alarm the victim, and did one of the following:
Striked, shoved, kicked, or otherwise touched a person or subjected him to physical contact
In a public place, directed obscene language or made an obscene gesture to or at another person
Followed a person in or about a public place
Initiated communication with a person, by telephone, computer, computer network, or computer system in a manner intended to harass or threaten bodily injury or property damage, or made any comment, request, suggestion or proposal by telephone, computer, computer network, or computer system that is obscene
Made a telephone call or caused a telephone to ring repeatedly, with no purpose of legitimate conversation
Made repeated communications at inconvenient hours that invaded another’s privacy and interfered in the use and enjoyment of another’s home or private residence or other private property
Repeatedly insulted, taunted, challenged, or made communications in offensively coarse language to another in a manner likely to provoke violent or disorderly response.
What can constitute a harassment charge may surprise you. For example, spitting on another can constitute “physical contact” sufficient to constitute harassment. Oftentimes, individuals are charged with harassment under situations which may present First Amendment defenses based on constitutionally protected speech. In other situations, it may be possible to disprove a harassment charge by establishing that the defendant did not possess the requisite intent.
Imagine walking home from a night out with friends, and someone bumps into you. Usually, this wouldn’t be a big deal. But even though you attempt to apologize, they become immediately aggressive. First, they start yelling at you and threatening you. You ignore this, but when they attempt to attack, you are forced to fight back. Unfortunately, in an attempt to protect yourself, you injure them.
Many people regard taking property that is not yours as theft, but the truth is that how something gets stolen makes a difference in the eyes of the law. That’s why Colorado law differentiates between burglary, robbery, and theft – because stealing is simply the underlying action these distinct crimes have in common.
The charges of burglary depend on the severity of the crime. The charges rely primarily on what
The laws surrounding marijuana use in Colorado are relatively straightforward to understand. Still, it’s helpful to brush up from time to time on a few of the finer points of legalized marijuana in the state, such as whether it’s OK to order marijuana online to have it delivered.
As progressive as Colorado has regarded drug laws and marijuana specifically, you don’t want to break the law unknowingly. In 2019, the
