At about midnight four years ago, restauranteur Lauren Boebert, in her words, “turned too sharp,” and rolled her truck into a ditch near her home in Rifle, Colorado.
She faced a careless driving and unsafe vehicle charges, and a court date was set for three months later.
Not an uncommon slip-up on rural roads at night.
But Boebert, who’s now a Republican candidate for Congress, never showed up for her court hearing on October 5, 2016, according to records obtained by the Colorado Times Recorder from Colorado’s 9th Judicial District.
This led a Garfield County judge to issue a warrant for Boebert’s arrest for failing to appear in court.
Information about the 2016 warrant comes after Colorado Newsline reported last week that Boebert failed to appear for two separate hearings following her 2015 disorderly-conduct arrest at the Country Jam music festival near Grand Junction. A document search shows that the Mesa County court issued a warrant for her arrest in this case as well after she didn’t show up.
In the 2016 case involving the car accident, a letter was sent by the court to Boebert’s home address in Rifle and advised Boebert that a “warrant for your arrest” was issued for “failure to appear on 10/5/16,” in reference to the case.
“You may take care of this matter by contacting the court…and request a new court date,” the letter, dated Oct. 7, 2016, states. “If you wish to plead guilty, it may be possible for you to do so by mail. In addition to the warrant, a warrant fee has been assessed and a hold may have been placed against your driver’s license. Please contact the court as soon as possible to resolve this matter.”
After apparently ignoring the court’s letter, Boebert was arrested four months later, on Feb. 13, 2017, fingerprinted, photographed, and fined $100. The following month, she appeared in court, as ordered, and the matter was settled in a plea bargain, dropping the careless driving charge.
When arrested in 2015 for disorderly conduct, Boebert warned deputies at the time that she had “friends at Fox News.”
One deputy wrote that Boebert was “trying to get subjects to leave the custody of law enforcement,” according to the police report. Some of these “subjects” were detained for underage drinking. (Find the police report, with the deputy’s full description of Boebert’s behavior, here.)
RELATED: “And I Even Got a Pretty Mug Shot Out of It,” Says Boebert, Mocking Her Arrest.
At her restaurant, Shooters Grill, Boebert once let at least one juvenile server carry a weapon illegally.
Newsline pointed out that Boebert recently criticized protesters for not respecting the law. “Civil order, rule of law, respect, and decency need to be restored!!!” Boebert tweeted June 23, as quoted by Newsline.
Without citing any evidence, Boebert also claimed Black Lives Matter protesters in Rifle were “paid and bussed in.”
Boebert’s campaign did not return a call seeking to know why the candidate didn’t show up for court hearings after being arrested in 2015 or after the car crash in 2016.
RELATED: Boebert’s Campaign Embraces Far-Right Militia Movement
But the Rifle Republican wrote an explanation of her 2016 car crash on the police report at the time.
“My lights were pointed up at the peak of the hill and I could not properly judge the right switch back turn,” she wrote on the report. “I almost came to a complete stop estimating where to turn but thought I was clear and on the road correctly. I had actually turned too sharp and too soon resulting in my truck rolling in the ditch.”
After upsetting GOP incumbent Scott Tipton in a June primary election, Boebert now must defeat Democrat Diane Mitsch Bush in November to represent the rural congressional district that stretches across western and southern Colorado.
RELATED: A Brief History of Rep. Boebert’s Ties to Extremist & Conspiracy Groups
