We often think of Extortion as threatening someone for money in Greeley and Weld County. However, that alone does not meet all the requirements for Extortion in Colorado. A woman is facing these charges after taking advantage of a man who left his cell phone unattended. According to the report, the man left his cell on the table while at a bar and began getting text messages from an unknown number demanding $300 or the person would tell his wife he was having an affair. Eventually, the woman behind the texts upped the amount to $500 and claimed she had a picture of the two of them together. Police got involved and the woman was arrested – admitting that she never had any picture and didn’t know the man. Would this be Extortion in Erie or Evans? Let’s find out.
Weld County Extortion Lawyer: Definition of Extortion in Morgan County
The Weld, Morgan, and Logan County, Colorado law definition of Criminal Extortion – C.R.S. 18-3-207 – is:
(a) The person, without legal authority and with the intent to induce another person against that other person’s will to perform an act or to refrain from performing a lawful act, makes a substantial threat to confine or restrain, cause economic hardship or bodily injury to, or damage the property or reputation of, the threatened person or another person; and
(b) The person threatens to cause the results described in paragraph (a) of this subsection (1) by:
(I) Performing or causing an unlawful act to be performed; or
(II) Invoking action by a third party, including, but not limited to, the state or any of its political subdivisions, whose interests are not substantially related to the interests pursued by the person making the threat.
So, the woman did try and get the man to give her money (perform an act) against his will through a threat to ruin his reputation. This meets the standards of subsection (a). However, with this the woman must threaten to perform or cause an unlawful act to be performed. Lying is not an unlawful act. So, pretending to have an affair with the man is not illegal and therefore, her actions fall just shy of Extortion. If she had private images of the man and threatened to post them online, then it would meet the criteria.
If you or someone you love has been charged with Extortion, be smart, exercise your right to remain silent, and contact the best criminal defense attorneys from the O’Malley Law Office at 970-616-6009. Together, we can protect your future.
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