A Boulder-area activist known for is suing the city and seven police officers for infringing her First Amendment rights by citing her after she wrote a pro-Palestinian message in washable chalk on the Pearl Street Mall.
Laura Gonzalez, 39, alleges in the suit that seven Boulder police officers targeted her for her support of Palestinians, and of selectively enforcing the city’s graffiti policy against her and not others who have written or drawn with chalk in Boulder, according to the for the District of Colorado.
One Boulder police officer, Carlos Castro, cited Gonzalez for graffiti after she wrote a message in chalk deriding the City Council’s investments, the complaint states. “Boulder City Council invests $30m/yr in genocide and ecocide in Palestine,” Gonzalez’s message read in all caps when it was written in June.
Body-worn camera footage provided by Gonzalez’s lawyer shows that the chalk message was written on the Pearl Street Mall near 14th Street, across the street from the site of the antisemitic firebombing attack that killed one person on June 1, 2025. Gonzalez wrote the message in chalk four days after the attack.
The Daily Camera was not able to independently obtain the body-worn-camera footage from Boulder Police Department.
Boulder prohibits anyone from painting or coloring on public or private property without permission from the city or private property owner, according to its .The graffiti prohibition, according to the complaint, violates the U.S. Constitution by prohibiting speech protected under the First Amendment.
On June 5, Gonzalez had gone to the Penfield Tate II Municipal Building at 1777 Broadway to protest the City Council’s decision to meet remotely and suspend public comment, the complaint states. She and a group of people were protesting in front of the building when police officers, including Caitlin Spinney and Elijah Cook-Cruz, reportedly told the group they couldn’t use a megaphone.
Gonzalez and the group later walked to the Pearl Street Mall while putting up flyers protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza and what protesters called the city’s complicity in genocide, according to the complaint. As the group walked, the seven police officers continued to monitor them, including while Gonzalez started writing in chalk on the mall. At least two officers, including Spinney and Cook-Cruz, watched Gonzalez write the message, said nothing until she finished, read the message and then approached her, the lawsuit alleges.
One of the seven officers, Castro, drove up and told Gonzalez that by writing in chalk, she violated the city’s graffiti policy, according to the complaint. Castro told Gonzalez that the fact that her message would incite a response from others is what violated the city’s code, according to the lawsuit.
“Any media that is used to write anything that can elicit any disturbance or anything like that is considered graffiti,” Castro is heard saying while describing the municipal code to another officer on body-worn camera footage. “So I was like, ‘OK, we can do that.’”
Boulder’s municipal code describes graffiti as a nuisance in that it “constitutes a visual blight upon the area in which it is located and acts as a catalyst for other antisocial behavior.” Earlier in the same footage, Castro was seen reading the code in his vehicle.
Castro and the other six officers detained Gonzalez, , which the suit describes as a violation of her freedom of speech. Castro then cited Gonzalez for using the sidewalk chalk.
Other people have been allowed to write in chalk on public property, but Gonzalez was discriminated against because of her views regarding the City Council and the treatment of Palestinians, the complaint alleges.
“While Defendant Castro issued Ms. Gonzalez a citation, Defendants (Officer Brandon) Mulhall and (Officer Jesus) Bustillos spoke disparagingly about one of Ms. Gonzalez’s fellow protesters for wearing a shirt denouncing the genocide in Gaza at an event the previous day,” the complaint reads. “It was clear that the viewpoint of Ms. Gonzalez’s advocacy was the basis for her citation.”
Castro then apologized to the other officers involved for “exposing them to legal liability,” according to the complaint.
The Boulder Municipal Court does not have any records of the graffiti case against Gonzalez, according to the court administrator, De’Von Kissick Kelly. When court records are sealed, the court cannot confirm or deny whether a case ever existed but will state that there is no such record.
The lawsuit states that the graffiti prosecution ultimately ended in Gonzalez’s favor and indicated her innocence.
None of the Boulder police officers involved were disciplined for their actions, the complaint states. Not disciplining the officers effectively condones the unconstitutional practices, according to the complaint.
No complaints about the incident were ever made to the police department’s Professional Standards Unit, which investigates allegations of police wrongdoing, spokesperson Dionne Waugh said.
The complaint asks for a jury trial and aims to invalidate Boulder’s municipal graffiti code. It also requests legal fees and unspecified damages.
“The First Amendment exists precisely so that people like Laura Gonzalez can criticize their government without fear of retaliation,” Andy McNulty, one of Gonzalez’s lawyers, wrote in a release. “Children write in sidewalk chalk in Boulder every day without facing criminal prosecution. The only difference here is that Ms. Gonzalez’s message was one the City of Boulder didn’t want to hear.”
Gonzalez also reiterated her belief that the way the city invests its money supports genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.
“You don’t have to agree with my methods, my values or my voice, and if they strip my right to speak, they set a precedent to strip yours,” Gonzalez wrote in the release. “We either defend free speech for all, or we lose it for everyone.”
Gonzalez is being represented by McNulty, Mari Newman and Madeline Leibin of the , according to the complaint.
In a statement, the city said it is aware of the lawsuit and is evaluating the allegations, spokesperson Sarah Huntley said. The city would not comment further, because the lawsuit is ongoing and its responses would come in the form as court filings, Huntley said.In a separate criminal case from September, to one felony count of retaliation against an elected official, and two harassment counts – one physical and one verbal, after police accused her of yelling at City Councilmember Matt Benjamin and pushing another person.
The Boulder Police Department didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
