It’s probably too much to ask for a professional spotlight-sniffer and social media troll like David Lesh to accept responsibility for his actions and stop making a fuss. After all, making a fuss is what the guy is all about: The founder of Denver-based outdoor apparel company Virtika has chosen to go for all the negative publicity he can get in order to portray himself as some sort of “bad boy” of the outdoorsy set. He has the sort of dude-bro attitude that most dude-bros outgrow by their late teens, or whenever they come to realize that the celebration of blithe abuse of whatever's handy isn’t really cool.
The second: Lesh petitioned the court to allow him to travel internationally while out on felony bond for that assault, to Colombia for a birthday trip. While exceptions for travel limitations are usually taken very seriously by courts, the judge allowed this trip and set Lesh's next court date for July 17.
The third: Lesh has again appealed a 2022 conviction of violating two Forest Service regulations, arguing free speech.
Lesh is perhaps best known as the guy who posted a picture of himself defecating in Hanging Lake, an off-limits sanctuary in the Maroon Bells.He’s since claimed that photo was a deliberate fake, meant to taunt his critics, including the U.S. Forest Service. But whether Lesh purposefully pooped in a protected pond or just pretended to poop in that pond isn’t the issue in his current legal appeal…even if it says volumes about his appeal just as a human being.
Lesh's 2022 convictions stem from a snowmobiling stunt in April 2020, documented in a photo that Lesh posted on Instagram. He was convicted of trespassing in an area restricted during the COVID-19 closure, as well as unauthorized “work activity” on USFS property. For these offenses, he was sentenced to six months' probation, 160 hours of community service and a $10,000 fine.
Lesh's first appeal of that conviction was rejected in a March 15 decision issued by U.S. District Judge Daniel D. Domenico. While Domenico acknowledged that “classlessness is within the bounds of the First Amendment,” he dismissed the legal arguments.
On June 9, Lesh appealed again, this time to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing that the USFS's delineated boundaries were not legally clear; that his post to Instagram was free speech and therefore protected; that the regulations from the USFS were improperly set by a non-congressional agency and were therefore unlawful themselves; and that his right to a jury trial was denied him.
“Mr. Lesh is being prosecuted for his speech,” says Richard Samp, senior litigation counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance, which is again representing Lesh, in an announcement of the appeal. “That is, for his decision to post photos on the internet.”
“There are few things more important to me than free speech and access to juries in criminal prosecutions,” notes NCLA litigation counsel Kara Rollins. "I hope that those core protections that apply to all Americans…that’s what shines through in the end.”
Rollins declines to say much more about Lesh's appeal beyond offering briefs showing that the NCLA is again focusing on governmental overreach, the delegation of punitive power, trial procedure for petty offenses and unconstitutional limits on free speech.
But Lesh is not being penalized for posting the photo; he’s being penalized for doing the thing in the photo. The fact that he posted it for all to see in some sad stab at internet notoriety isn’t the crime, but proof of the crime. And also perhaps proof that Lesh isn’t that strong a thinker (more evidence: allegedly strangling a guy clearly wearing a GoPro).
Whether the judges will go for this appeal is anyone's guess. But one verdict is in: David Lesh is a guy who just continues to crap all over pretty much anything he touches.
