Colorado Disorderly Conduct Defense Lawyers

In Colorado, a person commits disorderly conduct if he or she intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly does any of the following:

• Makes a coarse and obviously offensive utterance, gesture, or display in a public place and the utterance, gesture, or display tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace;
• Makes unreasonable noise in a public place or near a private residence that he has no right to occupy;
• Fights with another in a public place except in an amateur or professional contest of athletic skill;
• Discharges a firearm in a public place, except when engaged in lawful target practice or hunting; or
• Displays a deadly weapon, displays any article used or fashioned in a manner to cause a person to reasonably believe that the article is a deadly weapon, or represents verbally or otherwise that he or she is armed with a deadly weapon in a public place in a manner calculated to alarm.

Generally, if a person commits disorderly conduct by acting course and obviously offensive in public in a way that tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace, or by making unreasonable noise, he or she commits a class 1 petty offense that carries a maximum punishment of a $50 fine, or six months of imprisonment, or both.  However, if such an offense is done with the intent to either  disrupt a funeral or to cause severe emotional distress to a person attending the funeral, it is a class 2 misdemeanor that carries a minimum punishment of three months of imprisonment, or a $250 fine, or both. The maximum punishment is twelve months of imprisonment, or a $1,000 fine, or both.

Disorderly conduct by fighting in public is a class 3 misdemeanor that carries a minimum punishment of a $50 fine, and a maximum punishment of six months of imprisonment, or a $750 fine, or both.

Disorderly conduct by discharging a firearm in public, by displaying a deadly weapon, by displaying anything in a manner to cause others to believe that it’s a deadly weapon, or by representing possession of a deadly weapon in order to cause alarm is a class 2 misdemeanor that carries a minimum punishment of three months of imprisonment, or a $250 fine, or both. The maximum punishment is twelve months of imprisonment, or a $1,000 fine, or both.