Just before she was elected to Congress last year, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) finished paying off the state of Colorado nearly $20,000 in back taxes owed by her restaurant, Shooters Grill, located in Rifle.
The debt took the form of eight tax liens assessed since 2016 for failing to pay unemployment insurance.
But a ninth lien, assessed in 2017 by the Garfield County Court after Boebert refused to garnish an employee’s wages, remains unpaid, according to the Garfield County Court, in a response last week to a records request by the Colorado Times Recorder.
The outstanding lien of $2,578 was assessed against Shooters Grill after Boebert and an employee, who’d been sued by a debt collector, failed to respond to the court and the lawyers involved.
Boebert was unresponsive to written requests to deal with the matter. She also skipped two hearings arranged by the court. In one case, she’d received and ignored a summons to appear.
Garfield Court Judge Jonathan Pototsky eventually issued a default judgment (case #2015 C 030346) that required Shooters Grill to pay the $2,578, which included the initial debt of the employee, plus attorney’s fees, court costs, and interest.
The debt collector, Professional Finance Company Inc., that sued Shooters Grill is representing a nonprofit organization in the case, according to court documents.
It’s possible that Boebert has paid off the debt, according to a Garfield County Court spokesperson, and Professional Finance Company Inc. has failed to notify the court that payment was received.
Multiple calls to Professional Finance Company Inc. were not returned.
Boebert’s office likewise didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Boebert’s failure to respond to the Garfield County Court in this garnishment case is part of a pattern of not showing up for court hearings.
During the past five years, she failed to appear for court hearings in two minor, easy-to-deal-with criminal matters, resulting first in arrest warrants and then two actual arrests, which left a trail of fingerprints and mugshots that have been spotlighted by her opponents.
Now Boebert mocks her arrest record, saying, “I even got a pretty mugshot out of it.”
