Durango – Between 1999 and 2002, a Fort Lewis College honor student faked documents and posters and used the Internet to spread lies about more than a dozen acquaintances, from jail guards and a landlord to fellow students and college professors.
Davis Stephenson, 38, set up a “rape fantasy” website that invited men to break into a woman’s home and sexually assault her. He then pretended to be various men writing to her in response to her site.
A jury found him guilty in January of 26 felony counts, including criminal libel, forgery, criminal impersonation and stalking. Earlier this month, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison for his brand of cyber smearing, an increasingly common activity using the Internet to rant and bully.
Colorado’s criminal libel law, enacted in 1883 to lessen the frequency of public duels, was the perfect prosecutorial fit for the high-tech crimes, local officials say. But critics say the law is outdated and, in a separate case being considered by the Colorado Supreme Court, have challenged its constitutionality.
“I was glad this law was on the books,” said Deputy District Attorney Todd Norvell. “It worked for us.”
Defense attorney Rae Lyn Dreves told the court that Stephenson believed his behavior had amounted to tasteless, embarrassing pranks that nevertheless were protected as free speech under the First Amendment. An appeal is pending in the case. Dreves could not be reached for comment.
Colorado is one of 17 states that still have criminal libel laws.
The challenge of Colorado’s criminal libel law stems from a 2003 case involving a University of Northern Colorado student.
With the American Civil Liberties Union, he filed a federal lawsuit saying his civil rights had been violated and that the criminal libel statute was unconstitutional. A U.S. district judge ordered that he not be charged under the law but did not rule on its constitutionality.
The law criminalizes truthful speech, said Steve Zansberg, an attorney with Faegre & Benson who filed a brief in support of the student and the ACLU on behalf of Colorado media outlets.
“This was a breach-of-peace law aimed at trying to prevent people from shooting one another,” Zansberg said. “I think laws like this should go away.”
Criminal libel prosecutions are rare in Colorado, according to the state’s Judicial Department. Twenty-four adults have been charged since 2000, with five convictions.
The libel counts were only five of the 27 felony counts against Stephenson. The libel convictions extended his sentence 18 months, Norvell said. The rest of the prison time for libel will run concurrently with sentences for other felonies.
As reprehensible as Stephenson’s actions were, Zansberg said, they were punishable under several other laws.
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 970-385-0917 or at edraper@denverpost.com.
Colorado’s criminal libel law
Colorado’s criminal libel law states: “A person who shall knowingly publish or disseminate … any statement or object tending to blacken the memory of one who is dead, or to impeach the honesty, integrity, virtue, or reputation or expose the natural defects of one who is alive, and thereby to expose him to public hatred, contempt or ridicule, commits criminal libel.
It shall be an affirmative defense that the publication was true, except libels tending to blacken the memory of the dead and libels tending to expose the natural defects of the living.”
