Whipped Cream Difficulties

Both Bugs and Daffy are wrong. It is forgery season! And what was that about “Forgery is uncommon among the hyenas“?

Sonya Jaquez Lewis was convicted yesterday.

A jury found former [Colorado] state Sen. Sonya Jaquez Lewis, a Boulder County Democrat, guilty of four counts — one count of attempting to influence a public servant and three counts of forgery.

Apparently, Colorado has a crime called “attempting to influence a public servant”? I was under the impression that “attempting to influence a public servant”, especially an elected official, falls under the heading of “democracy”. “Forgery”, on the other hand…

Attempting to influence a public servant is the most serious charge Jaquez Lewis was convicted of. It’s a Class 4 felony, punishable by up to six years in prison and a $500,000 fine. Forgery is also a felony, though it’s a lower-level offense and carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison per count.

The former senator got crosswise with the state senate’s Ethics Committee last year. She was accused of “mistreating” some of her aides.

She stepped down when the committee announced that Jaquez Lewis had submitted at least one fabricated letter of support, purported to be from a former aide, to the panel. The aide whose name was on the letter told legislative investigators that she didn’t write it and that she had not been in touch with Jaquez Lewis for roughly a year before the missive was sent.
When confronted, Jaquez Lewis told legislative investigators that she was relaying information she had gathered from conversations with the former aide in years past. The letter, however, appeared on letterhead with the aide’s name on it and was written in the first person.
Prosecutors found that Jaquez Lewis had actually written multiple letters purporting to be from former aides.
During a three-day trial this week, Jaquez Lewis admitted to writing the letters of support. But she denied that they were fabrications, saying they were based either on information that was relayed to her previously and, in one instance, that she misattributed a letter to the wrong former aide.

More from the Denver Post:

Her Senate colleagues convened the ethics committee in January 2025 to investigate a litany of accusations that Jaquez Lewis tried to withhold pay from one aide and used others to perform work around her house. If found to violate Senate rules, Jaquez Lewis could have faced an expulsion vote.

Yeah, don’t mess with people’s pay.

Her attorney, Craig Lewis Truman, emphasized the stress that Jaquez Lewis felt in the Capitol, compounded by an ethics committee that Jaquez Lewis felt was biased against her.
“Do you think she would put it all on the line for a letter to these kangaroo courts? Or was it because she was under the gun?” Truman said to jurors before their deliberations began.

Just leaving this here:

And keeping with our theme for the day:

Separately, Jaquez Lewis last year agreed to pay nearly $3,000 to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office to settle allegations that she violated campaign finance laws. She admitted to failing to report campaign spending on several occasions. She also admitted to using campaign funds to hire a staffer to campaign on behalf of another candidate, which is prohibited.

And, because Lawrence’s happiness is one of the fifteen to thirty-five most important things to me: the Colorado Sun mentions her party affiliation in the subhead and the second paragraph. The Denver Post waits until the third paragraph.

The state supposedly plans to ask for probation. Hattip to Mike the Musicologist again.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 29th, 2026 at 4:09 pm and is filed under Law, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.