A Ridgway man has been found in violation of a restraining order prohibiting him from harassing or contacting a local brewpub, its owners employees, a county court judge decided this week

After more than eight hours of testimony, evidence and arguments, Judge Kurt Beckenhauer said David Gottorff violated the protection order obtained by Colorado Boy after he allegedly retaliated against the establishment that banned him in 2019.

Beckenhauer cited evidence including a surveillance video of Gottorff placing a modified Colorado Boy sticker on a liquor store beer cooler and his belief that Gottorff intended the protected parties to know what he was doing when he posted online negative comments about the brewpub and its associates. He said it was clear Gottorff intended to disrupt business and continued to persist in harassing the brewpub and its associates, and failed to obey his previous order.

“Compliance was simply not engaging in the behavior,” he said. “That was all that was necessary to comply. Instead, Mr Gottorff engaged in activity that frankly must have taken some significant effort.”

Beckenhauer also stated Gottorff’s violation of the protection order was willful and “offends the dignity of the court.”

“Mr. Gottorff has acted as if the protection order didn’t exist … continuing the same or very similar behavior which was the very reason for issuing it.”

Colorado Boy co-owner Daniel Richards obtained the protection order after a hearing in March 2020, and brought the matter before the judge again after a series of events involving Gottorff’s repeated placement of stickers with an altered Colorado Boy logo and negative posts on social media.

Richards’ attorney, Roger Sagal, argued Gottorff has continued to target the brewpub, its patrons and employees in an attempt to harm the business and intimidate others. But Gottorff’s court-appointed defense attorney Dan Shaffer of Grand Junction, argued he was allowed to make the statements because it was speech protected by the First Amendment.

Gottorff was accused of placing stickers with a modified Colorado Boy logo around the region, as far away as Crested Butte, Salida and Durango. The sticker design has been altered to replace a miner sitting on a rock to be a miner sitting on a toilet, and some replaced “pub & brewery” with the word “boycott” while others say “sh—ty pizza & beer.”

He was also accused of launching an Instagram page called “colorado_boy_boycott” in early December. The posts on this profile include favorable reviews of other breweries with negative comments about Colorado Boy, including comparing the beer to urine, statements it causes diarrhea and other derogatory claims.

This page appeared shortly after Richards was awarded court costs in a civil suit Gottorff brought against him, before the resolution of another case in which Gottorff faces contempt allegations.

Most of Sagal’s evidence presented to the court were screenshots of posts on that Instagram account, and the judge received more than 100 pieces of evidence from the prosecution.

Richards undertook his own investigation into the stickers when they started showing up again. According to evidence presented in the hearing, Richards recognized the beer cans in one of the Instagram posts, which were photographed with a sticker on a glass door of a beer cooler He knew those particular cans were only distributed to a few liquor stores. He narrowed it down to Corks Fine Wine & Spirits in Montrose and found the sticker on the cooler door.

Richards was able to obtain security camera footage from Corks showing Gottorff placing the sticker on the door, as well as footage of Gottorff buying bourbon and removing his mask at the counter for identification. He also obtained a receipt for Gottorff’s purchase, showing his credit card information, as well as information linking him with a loyalty account he used.

Richards also was able to collect stickers with the modified logo from locations in Ouray, Ridgway and Telluride and had them analyzed by a lab, which was able to detect three fingerprints. Sagal presented expert witness testimony in the hearing about the fingerprints, in which they were matched to Gottorff’s fingerprints obtained when he was booked into the Montrose County Jail. However, the judge ruled the fingerprint card from the jail into the Montrose County Jail. However, the judge ruled the fingerprint card from the jail couldn’t be used as a comparison for the fingerprints detected on the stickers and he did not consider the evidence.

Sagal also questioned witnesses who testified Gottorff had targeted them for working at Colorado Boy, including Sue Husch of Ridgway. Gottorff posted negative comments about Husch, who bartends at the brewpub, calling her a “rat in the true sense of the word.”

“This post came out of nowhere, I have not even had eye contact with this man in many, many months,” Husch testified, adding she does not understand the vehemence with which she was attacked by the former bar regular.

Gottorff did not testify, at the advice of his attorney.

Not only did Gottorff target Colorado Boy and its owners in the posts, but he also started targeting employees and patrons in an effort to smear those associated with the business, Sagal said.

One post targeted Beth Lakin, a Ouray teacher and Ridgway town councilor, and insinuated she was promiscuous and favored “young boys.”

Another post targeted a former Colorado Boy employee, alleging the brewpub was complicit in an alleged sexual assault in which she was a victim.

Sagal argued the posts and the stickers constituted communication, specifically meant to taunt his targets and those who associate with them, such as the brewpub’s patrons who committed “the sin of being a customer.”

Nowhere in the day-long hearing did Shaffer dispute evidence Sagal presented that Gottorff posted the comments online or placed the stickers around town.

Instead, he stuck to his argument that Gottorff is free to state his opinion, and likened it to being able to badmouth an ex-spouse to friends, even if a protection order is in place.

The judge didn’t agree with Shaffer’s analogy and said Gottorff’s intent and placement of the stickers and online posts were meant to communicate with the protected parties.

“What this is more akin to is a husband, who is prohibited from communicating with his wife, leaving notes and messages in places where his wife is likely to be,” he said. “That’s exactly what happened here.”

Sagal asked the judge to make Gottorff destroy the stickers “that he dearly is responsible for producing and sticking all over the West Slope,” and remove the boycott page. He also asked the judge to include all the Colorado Boy locations in the protection orders and award Richards attorney’s fees and court costs, as well as fine Gottorff $10,000.

Sagal stopped short of asking for incarceration.

“I don’t feel like we should be the ones advocating for that,” he said, noting he would leave that up to the district attorney’s office in Gottorff’s other cases.

The judge will sentence Gottorff next month.

This latest hearing is in a long line of legal issues Gottorff has been involved in here in Ouray County.

In addition to the civil case regarding the protection order involving Colorado

Boy, Gottorff faces misdemeanor criminal charges for allegedly violating the protection order, which he was arrested for in January. He was arrested again the following day for an alleged violation of a protection order against Andy Michelich, his former employer at Western Slope Rides, which was granted after a disagreement they had at Colorado Boy in November 2019, which led to Gottorff being banned from the brewpub.

Gottorff has recently filed lawsuits against Ridgway Marshal Shane Schmalz, Ridgway Deputy Marshal Ryan Hansen and Ouray Police Officer Justin Crandall in response to his arrests.

He has also sued two judges – District Court Judge Cory Jackson and Judge Beckenhauer himself. San Miguel County Judge Sean Murphy has been appointed to handle the rest of his cases at this time.

Gottorff recently attempted to obtain restraining orders against Ridgway and Ouray residents he claimed were working together to harass him with social media pages, including accounts called “gottorffwetsthebed,” “crustyundiesgottroff,” “davegottorffsucics” and “gottorffsmellslikeass.”

One of the Ridgway residents, Shannon Marjenhoff, has a protection order against Gottorff due to an altercation at a liquor store last year, and told Judge Murphy she thinks Gottorff is behind the social media accounts himself. Gottorff assured the judge he had evidence to prove he needed a protection order against her, but did not show up at the court hearing in which he was scheduled to present that evidence.

Judge Murphy did not grant any of the protection orders Gottorff requested.

Editor’s note: A lawsuit filed by Gottorff last year against Plaindealer co-publisher Erin McIntyre has been resolved, and the Plaindealer has been awarded court costs and attorney’s fees.