October 22, 2016 08:12 PM UTC

Rep. Tim Leonard, You're in a World of Hurt

• 13 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

SUNDAY UPDATE: Via the Colorado Statesman’s Ernest Luning, Rep. Tim Leonard’s response to the story:

Here’s what’s important to remember: Rep. Leonard’s wife has the court-appointed authority to make education decisions for her kids, and Leonard does not. So when Leonard bemoans the fact that “the school requires two signatures on a form,” or that he only wants to opt the kid out from a test like any “good parent,” left unsaid is the fact that he is using these situations to meddle with his wife’s court-ordered authority–to the extent that he has been ruled in contempt of court.

Which invites a more basic question: how is it that Leonard has seen fit to file some 80 motions against his wife over their divorce, but Leonard can’t follow simple instructions from a judge about letting his wife make these decisions? We’d say the answer lies in what Leonard’s ex-wife describes as “controlling and manipulative behavior.”

Rep. Leonard’s response to this story did him no favors.

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A story breaking today from the Colorado Independent’s Marianne Goodland spells bad news for one of the state’s most conservative lawmakers, Rep. Tim Leonard of Evergreen:

During a hearing in Jefferson County District Court on Sept. 29th, a magistrate scolded Leonard for repeatedly shrugging off the judge’s order and interfering with his ex-wife’s educational decisions.

This time, it could cost him his freedom.

Magistrate Marianne Marshall Tims found Leonard in contempt of court on two charges related to educational decision-making. She said she intends to enter a punitive sanction, which she told him could be a jail sentence of up to six months. But the hearing adjourned after 5 p.m. in the business day, after the bailiff had ended the shift.

“If it was earlier, Mr. Leonard, you need to know that a sheriff would be coming to take you into custody,” the magistrate said, according to a transcript of the hearing obtained by The Colorado Independent this week. [Pols emphasis]

The situation presents novel possibilities if Leonard were to be in jail for contempt of court on a civil matter at the start of the legislative session in January. Perhaps they’d let him vote from his cell? Of course, this presumes the situation Leonard finds himself in doesn’t cost him his seat on November 8th. And depending on what happens in the coming days, that’s something we wouldn’t take for granted.

Apparently one issue over which Rep. Leonard was ruled in contempt is his insistence that his children not be forced to take standardized tests:

The transcript shows that Leonard repeatedly has attempted, sometimes successfully, to make educational decisions for his children that conflicted with decisions made by his ex-wife. According to his own testimony, he was found in contempt of court in September 2014 for trying to opt out one of the children from a particular state standardized test…

One of the two latest contempt findings against Leonard was for his attempt to opt another child out of a federal standardized test. Leonard told the magistrate that the federal test was “educationally insignificant,” although he did not explain what led him to that conclusion…

And then there’s this:

Her other contempt finding was for Leonard’s refusal to allow one of the younger children to use an iPad at school. The devices were given to every student in that child’s class. Because Leonard forbade his child from using it, the teacher had to single out that child for supplemental work in lieu of using the iPad.

Leonard testified that he does not have internet access at his home to be used by a child of that age.

The magistrate ruled that he may restrict the iPad’s use at his home, but not ignore the decision about education made by his ex-wife for the child to use the device at school.

There appear to be three issues in this story for Rep. Leonard to explain: the two lesser being his willingness to risk jail time in opposition to standardized tests and iPads being used in education. Leonard, a right-wing education “reformer” in the recalled Jeffco school board majority mold is certainly not alone in his opposition to either–though the described extent to which Leonard is taking his opposition could be reasonably considered, you know, lunatic.

The larger problem, of course, is that Leonard is forcing these educational decisions on his children despite his wife’s court-imposed sole authority to make such decisions. And the story suggests that this indicative of an uglier side of Rep. Tim Leonard than has been publicly understood up to now:

After a marriage that spanned two decades, Monica Leonard was granted an annulment by the Catholic Church in June. Her sister, Mary Miller, told The Independent that Monica Leonard homeschooled the children for 20 years, but after the divorce put four of them in public schools – a decision that her ex-husband has objected to, preferring they attend an online school at home instead…

Since 2012, when Monica Leonard first sought the divorce, Miller estimates Leonard has filed more than 80 motions against his ex-wife on a variety of issues.

Monica Leonard told the magistrate that “I filed for divorce because of his controlling and manipulative behavior. It’s four years later and he is still trying to control me in every fashion possible.” Their youngest is now nine, and to go through another ten years of this will be “hell,” she said. [Pols emphasis]

Leonard responded by saying because the testing form required both parents’ signatures, it was his choice not to cooperate–even though the court said otherwise. He attributes the iPad business to being a protective parent, and says the whole matter “is not a ‘contempt’ worthy cause.”

Honestly, when we consider dozens of court motions from Leonard against his ex-wife followed by his being found in contempt of court over educational minutiae, with the woman pleading in court filings for somebody to stop Leonard’s “controlling and manipulative behavior,” we get a pretty clear picture of what’s going on.

And it doesn’t make Leonard, or his ideological friends in education “reform,” look good.