Peo v. Dexter

CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 3, 2025
Docket23CA0585
StatusUnpublished

This text of Peo v. Dexter (Peo v. Dexter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Peo v. Dexter, (Colo. Ct. App. 2025).

Opinion

23CA0585 Peo v Dexter 07-03-2025

COLORADO COURT OF APPEALS

Court of Appeals No. 23CA0585 Garfield County District Court No. 22CR99 Honorable John F. Neiley, Judge

The People of the State of Colorado,

Plaintiff-Appellee,

v.

Jordan Akia Dexter,

Defendant-Appellant.

JUDGMENT AFFIRMED

Division I Opinion by JUDGE KUHN Moultrie and Berger*, JJ., concur

NOT PUBLISHED PURSUANT TO C.A.R. 35(e) Announced July 3, 2025

Philip J. Weiser, Attorney General, Trina K. Kissel, Senior Assistant Attorney General and Assistant Solicitor General, Denver, Colorado, for Plaintiff-Appellee

James West, Alternate Defense Counsel, Longmont, Colorado, for Defendant- Appellant

* Sitting by assignment of the Chief Justice under provisions of Colo. Const. art. VI, § 5(3), and § 24-51-1105, C.R.S. 2024. ¶1 Defendant, Jordan Akia Dexter, appeals the judgment of

conviction after a jury found him guilty of two counts of attempt to

influence a public servant and one count of harassment by

telephone. We affirm.

I. Background

¶2 In January 2021, Detective Jeffrey Fain of the Glenwood

Springs Police Department obtained and executed a search warrant

for Dexter’s home based on information that Dexter was in

possession of a firearm in violation of a civil protection order.

Officers seized an AR-15 and ammunition from Dexter’s bedroom

while executing the warrant. Later that day, Dexter was arrested

and charged with a protection order violation for possessing the

firearm.

¶3 On February 14, 2022, the prosecution dismissed the criminal

case against Dexter because there was a clerical error in the

protection order, and it did not restrict Dexter from possessing

firearms. After the case was dismissed, the protection order was

modified to prohibit Dexter from possessing firearms.

¶4 Between February 15 and March 11, Dexter repeatedly called

the Glenwood Springs Police Department and various law

1 enforcement dispatch centers to get the firearm, that he said

belonged to his friend, returned. Based on these calls, the

prosecution charged Dexter with three counts of attempt to

influence a public servant, six counts of harassment, and one count

of telephone harassment. See § 18-8-306, C.R.S. 2024 (attempt to

influence a public servant); § 18-9-111(1)(e), C.R.S. 2024

(harassment); § 18-9-111(1)(f), C.R.S. 2024 (telephone harassment).

¶5 After a jury trial, Dexter was convicted of two of the attempt to

influence a public servant counts — one for the call he made to a

Garfield County dispatch operator and one for the call he made to a

Mesa County dispatch supervisor. He was also convicted of

telephone harassment for the calls he made to the Garfield County

nonemergency line. The jury acquitted Dexter of the remaining

counts, all of which involved Detective Fain. The trial court

imposed a three-year probationary sentence for the attempt to

influence a public servant counts and a concurrent one-year

probationary sentence for the telephone harassment conviction.

II. Analysis

¶6 Dexter contends that his convictions for attempt to influence a

public servant must be reversed because (1) he was convicted of

2 speech that did not rise to the level of “true threats” under the

United States and Colorado Constitutions and (2) the attempt to

influence a public servant statute, section 18-8-306, is

unconstitutionally vague and overbroad as applied to him. Dexter

further contends that the evidence presented at trial was

insufficient to sustain his conviction for harassment by telephone.

We reject each of these contentions and affirm the judgment.

A. True Threats

¶7 Dexter contends that his speech did not rise to the level of

“true threats” and is therefore constitutionally protected.

1. Applicable Law and Standard of Review

¶8 The First Amendment to the United States Constitution

provides that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the

freedom of speech.” U.S. Const. amend. I. But the protections

afforded by the First Amendment are not absolute; there are

categories of speech the government may permissibly regulate.

People v. Stanley, 170 P.3d 782, 786 (Colo. App. 2007) (citing

Virginia v. Black, 538 U.S. 343, 358 (2003)). One such category is

“true threats.” Id. “True threats of violence, everyone agrees, lie

outside the bounds of the First Amendment’s protection.”

3 Counterman v. Colorado, 600 U.S. 66, 72 (2023). Accordingly, any

statute that criminalizes threats must be applied and interpreted

consistently with the First Amendment. Stanley, 170 P.3d at 786;

see also Watts v. United States, 394 U.S. 705, 707 (1969); People v.

Hickman, 988 P.2d 628, 639-41 (Colo. 1999).

¶9 Section 18-8-306 provides:

Any person who attempts to influence any public servant by means of deceit or by threat of violence or economic reprisal against any person or property, with the intent thereby to alter or affect the public servant’s decision, vote, opinion, or action concerning any matter which is to be considered or performed by the public servant or the agency or body of which the public servant is a member, commits a class 4 felony.

Because section 18-8-306 criminalizes threats, courts must

interpret it to limit criminal culpability to statements constituting

“true threats.” Stanley, 170 P.3d at 786.

¶ 10 “True threats are ‘serious expressions’ conveying that a

speaker means to ‘commit an act of unlawful violence.’”

Counterman, 600 U.S. at 74 (quoting Black, 538 U.S. at 359). As

the Supreme Court explained in Counterman, “The ‘true’ in that

term distinguishes what is at issue from jests, ‘hyperbole,’ or other

4 statements that when taken in context do not convey a real

possibility that violence will follow (say, ‘I am going to kill you for

showing up late’).” Id. (quoting Watts, 394 U.S. at 708).

¶ 11 Generally, the existence of a true threat depends on what the

statement conveys to the person on the other end, and not on

whether the speaker was aware of, or intended to convey, the

threatening aspect of the message. Id.; see also Black, 538 U.S. at

359-60 (“The speaker need not actually intend to carry out the

threat.”). Additionally, the Court in Counterman held that in

true-threat prosecutions, the First Amendment requires the

prosecution to prove “that the defendant had some subjective

understanding of the threatening nature of his statements,” thereby

abrogating Colorado’s objective person test. Counterman, 600 U.S.

at 69, 71-73. Specifically, the Court held that the prosecution must

prove that the defendant, at a minimum, acted recklessly — that is,

that he “consciously disregarded a substantial risk that his

communications would be viewed as threatening violence.” Id. at

69.

¶ 12 Whether a statement is a true threat is a question of fact to be

determined by the fact finder. People v.

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Related

Watts v. United States
394 U.S. 705 (Supreme Court, 1969)
Meyer v. Grant
486 U.S. 414 (Supreme Court, 1988)
Virginia v. Black
538 U.S. 343 (Supreme Court, 2003)
United States v. Franklin Jeffries, II
692 F.3d 473 (Sixth Circuit, 2012)
People v. Hickman
988 P.2d 628 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1999)
People v. Janousek
871 P.2d 1189 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1994)
Clark v. People
232 P.3d 1287 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 2010)
People v. Villalobos
159 P.3d 624 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2006)
People v. Veren
140 P.3d 131 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2005)
People v. Stanley
170 P.3d 782 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2007)
Elonis v. United States
575 U.S. 723 (Supreme Court, 2015)
Martinez v. People
2015 CO 16 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 2015)
People v. Perez
2016 CO 12 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 2016)
McCoy v. People
2019 CO 44 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 2019)
Peo v. Stone
2020 COA 23 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2020)
in Interest of R.D
2020 CO 44 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 2020)
Dempsey v. People
117 P.3d 800 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 2005)
People v. Ujaama
2012 COA 36 (Colorado Court of Appeals, 2012)
Anderson v. Griswold
2023 CO 63 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 2023)

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Peo v. Dexter, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/peo-v-dexter-coloctapp-2025.