October 27, 2010 11:32 PM UTC

Time to Lawyer Up, Libby

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• by: Colorado Pols

We told you about this yesterday (and we were the first to report it, by the way) about Republican Libby Szabo’s problems with her direct mail — one of which rises to the level of a Class 5 Felony.

Well, according to a release from the Colorado Democratic Party, it looks like Szabo is going to need a lawyer:

A criminal complaint was filed with the Jefferson County District Attorney’s office today against Republican State House District 27 candidate Libby Szabo. The complaint was filed by unaffiliated voter Julie Callahan, a resident of District 27, who had decided “enough was enough.”…

…Callahan’s complaint cites Szabo’s two violations of Colorado’s criminal statutes in separate political mailings sent to voters of HD-27: false and reckless statements relating to a candidate and illegal use of the official seal of the State of Colorado.

In one negative mailing, Szabo falsely claims that Sara Gagliardi’s campaign is under investigation by the Jefferson County District Attorney’s office. The Jefferson County DA’s office has confirmed that no such complaint exists, which establishes in law that Szabo has knowingly and recklessly made false statements about Sara Gagliardi. In a second negative mailing, criticized in the press for including a photo of a Hepatitis C victim that Rep. Gagliardi sought justice for, Szabo illegally uses the state seal.

We wouldn’t expect the first complaint to get very far — there have been plenty of cases in the past of candidates putting out false information in mailings or advertisements, but local district attorney’s hardly ever pursue them (both because of the time and resources that would be involved, and because they don’t want to wade into a partisan fight).

But the second complaint is pretty much a cut-and-dried case. It is a Class 5 Felony to use the state seal of Colorado without consent. There’s no question her campaign used the seal in its mailings; if they didn’t have consent, then there’s not much else they can do besides starting a conversation about a plea deal.