Garfield County prosecutors this week filed formal criminal charges against Jayson Boebert, the ex-husband of U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, after two separate alleged confrontations with family members in early January, a court supervisor confirmed Thursday.
Jayson Boebert was charged with a misdemeanor count of obstructing a police officer and two petty offenses of disorderly conduct and trespassing in a Jan. 6 incident at a restaurant in Silt in which he argued with Lauren Boebert and then refused to leave the restaurant when police arrived, court records show.
He also was charged with possessing a gun while under the influence of alcohol, misdemeanor harassment and misdemeanor assault in a Jan. 9 incident in which he is accused of shoving his 18-year-old son during a physical fight around 1 a.m. at their home outside Silt, and then grabbing a rifle when his son called the sheriff’s office. He had been drinking at a bar before the encounter, according to an affidavit.
A supervisor in Garfield County Associate Court in Rifle confirmed that the 9th Judicial District Attorney’s Office filed formal charges Wednesday. District Attorney Jeff Cheney did not immediately return a request for comment.
The formal charges are the same as those Jayson Boebert was arrested on, except that he is now accused of illegally possessing a firearm while drunk, instead of the slightly different charge of unlawfully pointing a firearm at another person, court records show.
The disorderly conduct charge alleges Jayson Boebert “made a coarse or obviously offensive utterance, gesture or display in a public place which tended to incite an immediate breach of the peace,” court records show.
Lauren Boebert, a Republican who represents Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District, told police after the restaurant encounter that she thought her ex-husband was behaving poorly to “make her suffer” after their October divorce, according to an affidavit. The pair were together for 18 years and share four sons and a grandchild.
On Jan. 6, the two were drinking at Miner’s Claim Restaurant in Silt when Jayson Boebert called police and claimed Lauren Boebert had punched him in the face during an argument. She told officers she’d only placed her finger on his nose, and police found no evidence to support Jayson’s claim.
Officers asked Jayson Boebert to leave the restaurant, but he refused for several minutes. When officers finally walked him out, he grabbed a doorframe on the way out to try to stop officers, according to an affidavit filed against him.
In the second incident on Jan. 9, the couple’s son called the sheriff’s office and claimed he and his father got into a physical fight during an argument around 1 a.m., and that Jayson Boebert shoved him and put his thumb in his mouth during that confrontation. He said Jayson Boebert grabbed a rifle and left the house when the son called law enforcement, according to an affidavit.
Jayson Boebert is scheduled to appear in Garfield County Court in Rifle on Monday in both cases. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.
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