We all know there are not a lot of food and restaurant choices when driving on the turnpike or toll roads. While it is nice there are rest stops along the way, making it so you do not have to pay to get off and then pay to get back on the road just to get some food or gas, you do not always have many choices when it comes to rest stop services. Apparently, this was not the mindset of one man when he entered a turnpike rest stop. He wanted macaroni and cheese and when the fast food restaurant told him they were all out, he began to curse and became very angry. He went to another merchant to buy a cup of coffee and returned to the same restaurant, this time to order some potatoes. When the employee told him they were all out of potatoes too, he went ballistic. He began throwing condiments all over the counter and the floor and the police were called. The man was charged with Disorderly Conduct.
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Disorderly Conduct in Larimer County
Disorderly Conduct – C.R.S. 18-9-106 – is defined by Colorado law as:
(a) Makes a coarse and obviously offensive utterance, gesture, or display in a public place and the utterance, gesture, or display tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace; or
(c) Makes unreasonable noise in a public place or near a private residence that he has no right to occupy; or
(d) Fights with another in a public place except in an amateur or professional contest of athletic skill; or
(e) Not being a peace officer, discharges a firearm in a public place except when engaged in lawful target practice or hunting or the ritual discharge of blank ammunition cartridges as an attendee at a funeral for a deceased person who was a veteran of the armed forces of the United States; or
(f) Not being a peace officer, displays a deadly weapon, displays any article used or fashioned in a manner to cause a person to reasonably believe that the article is a deadly weapon, or represents verbally or otherwise that he or she is armed with a deadly weapon in a public place in a manner calculated to alarm.
Cursing or swearing can be considered a coarse and offensive utterance.
Cursing or swearing can be considered a coarse and offensive utterance in Larimer, Boulder, and Grand County. This, combined with the fact that the man was throwing things on the counter and floor, could be seen as a breach of peace in the eyes of the law. Under the circumstances described above, the man would be charged with a class 1 petty offense for his Disorderly Conduct charge. Fighting, interrupting or interfering with a funeral, or discharging or displaying a deadly weapon has harsher penalties. These offenses would be charged as a class 2 or class 3 misdemeanor depending on the specific facts of the case.