Colorado man faces $300K bond after suing, threatening multiple judges
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A Colorado man still faces a $300,000 bond after being indicted by a grand jury on 24 counts, including criminal extortion, conspiracy and retaliation against a judge.
Brett Nelson, 44, of Gunnison County, Colorado, has filed more than 40 lawsuits in federal court against judges, clerks and mediators since 2017 for alleged civil rights violations and unpaid arbitration awards, Courthouse News Service reports.
According to the April 2022 indictment, he also allegedly threatened and harassed more than a dozen victims, including 7th Judicial District Judges Keri Yoder, Donald Jackson and Ashley Burgemeister and Alamosa County Judge Daniel Walzl. Many of these threats came after Nelson sought fraudulent arbitration awards from the judges and other people.
Lori Talbot, an attorney in Gunnison County who represented the mother of Nelson’s child in a domestic relations case, also received a letter from Nelson stating that she owed him payment for a fictitious arbitration award, according to the indictment. After he left her a threatening voicemail message, she installed security cameras at her home.
Senior District Judge Kenneth Plotz declined to lower Nelson’s bond Tuesday.
Courthouse News Service reports that Nelson claimed during the hearing that the court had denied him due process in his underlying arbitration claims.
“This case hinge-pins on the boldfaced lie that I did not go through arbitration when unequivocally I underwent arbitration,” Nelson told Plotz, according to Courthouse News Service.
Nelson also claimed that the court’s proceedings “followed a ‘pretrial determination of guilt’ in a ‘kangaroo court.’”
According to Courthouse News Service, Plotz said Nelson’s “comments speak for themselves.”
The judge set arraignment for March 29.
