December 27, 2016 11:41 AM UTC

Top Ten Stories of 2016 #8: Orange is the New Black

• 1 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

2016 bore witness to one of the most unusual circumstances we’ve ever seen ensnaring a sitting Colorado legislator. Rep. Tim Leonard, Republican of Evergreen, was found in contempt of court at the end of September after repeatedly violating court orders regarding the custody of his children. According to the very few news reports available about this ruling at the time, Leonard’s former spouse had been awarded education decisionmaking authority over their children–a ruling Leonard disregarded is various apparently peevish ways in disputes with his ex-wife ranging from testing opt-outs to the use of iPads in instruction.

Most news media declined to report on this ruling before the election, calling it a personal matter that would be inappropriate to cover–but Democrats made a last-ditch attempt to publicize the situation in mailers supporting Leonard’s Democratic opponent Tammy Story. It’s very possible that if this story had been covered at the end of September, which a Jefferson County magistrate basically told Leonard he was going to be locked up, it might have effected the outcome of the race for his seat.

The local media’s questionable decision to suppress this story was reversed on December 9th, when Rep. Leonard was handcuffed and sentenced to 14 days in Jefferson County jail–a severe penalty that underscores how far Leonard had gone in violation of the court’s orders. To be sentenced to serve jail time over these kind of mundane civil proceedings indicates the judge considered Leonard willfully defiant of the court’s orders. Once Leonard was “dressed in” and his mugshot made public, he was the lead story on the news that night.

Rep. Leonard was released from jail on December 23rd. The timing of Leonard’s release is important, since had his sentence lasted into the legislative session it would have created novel questions of legislative immunity. Leonard is not expected to face any sanction from his fellow Republicans, though outgoing House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst called for his removal from the House Education Committee:

“It is absurd to imagine Rep. Leonard taking a seat on the House Education Committee, to which he was reappointed just last week by Minority Leader Neville, and making important decisions for Colorado’s students when a judge has prohibited Rep. Leonard from making educational decisions regarding his own children.”

Earlier this year, when a Democratic state representative was arrested on his first-ever drinking and driving charge, Republicans howled over the “hypocrisy” of his prior sponsorship of a bill increasing penalties for repeat DUI offenders. That incident, for which the legislator in question tearfully apologized on the floor of the House, is the first defense offered for Leonard today. But there has been no equivalent expression of remorse from Leonard, and the facts of Leonard’s case are uglier in their full context:

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]

Rep. Leonard, a longtime far-right political activist in Jefferson County, was appointed to this seat after it was vacated by Jon Keyser–who resigned before completing a full term to “focus” on his ill-fated run for the U.S. Senate. What happens next will depend on what Leonard has to say about this experience once he’s back at the legislature after the New Year–and this time we expect the press will report the story.  Certainly Leonard is damaged political goods today in a way he was not before he went to jail, and his roots in his district are not deep.

And yes. Leonard’s personal troubles with regard to educational decisions are now fair game.