The House representative didn't contact Eagle County District Court until July 3 to finally pay off the May 12 ticket, according to the Clerk to the Court's office, after finding out she had a court date scheduled this month because she failed to pay.
"Tickets that aren't paid to the state before their twenty-day deadline, they'll get sent to the court," a clerk tells Westword. "Her case got forwarded to the court, we opened a case, and she took a standard plea offer."
Boebert was caught on a Sunday — the morning of Mother's Day — traveling westbound on Interstate 70 in a black Mazda CX-50 near mile marker 189, according to police.
A February 2024 report by Denver7, which cited CSP data, listed the area as a hot spot for speed-related crashes, with 52 percent of accidents on Vail Pass between 2021 and 2023 involving drivers who speed.
CSP Public Information Officer Patrick Rice tells Westword that Boebert was pulled over around 10:25 a.m. and issued a ticket for going 10-19 miles per hour over the posted speed limit of 65 miles per hour, with her exact speed being 84 miles per hour. Boebert was informed that she had twenty days to pay the fine or she'd be given a court date.
Her press secretary, Drew Sexton, says the newly elected CD4 Republican nominee had sent a check for the ticket to the Department of Revenue (DOR) rather than paying it through the regular online system, and it wound up being sent back to her. He said it was unclear why she sent a check and didn't pay online.
Lauren Boebert dons a "Make America Great Again" hat and fake Trump Sneakers during her CD4 election party last month.
Chris Perez
"I don't know what happened before the ticket came to us," the clerk says. "She called and said, 'I have a ticket with a court date and I need to take care of it.' She contacted the court on July 3 and paid it online."
Under Colorado law, tickets that aren't paid or postmarked within twenty days of the violation date are automatically sent to court. Tickets that aren't paid within forty days can only be paid through the court system and not the DOR website.
While speeding is considered a Class A traffic infraction in Colorado, Boebert was just 6 miles per hour away from catching a Class 2 misdemeanor traffic charge and a possible jail sentence of ten to ninety days — and she also has an alleged history of notoriously bad driving offenses.
In July 2016, Boebert was cited for careless driving and unsafe driving after rolling a truck into a ditch in Garfield County. She was given a court date but failed to appear and was later arrested as a result.
Boebert was jailed for nearly two hours before paying a $100 fine and being released, according to court records. She agreed to appear in court a month later and accepted a deal to drop the careless driving charge, pleading guilty to unsafe driving.
The congresswoman brought up the criminal ordeal at a CD4 debate in January after she and her Republican opponents were asked to raise their hands if they had been arrested. Six of them did, including Boebert, before high-fiving and fist-bumping each other as the audience cheered.
“My arrest was just a simple traffic violation that was unpaid," Boebert said.
VIDEO: Incredible moment in first GOP debate for CD4 as candidates are asked to raise their hands if they’ve been arrested…
— Chris Perez (@yankee_MSU) January 26, 2024
Six candidates raised their hands, including Lauren Boebert and Mike Lynch.
They then proceeded to cheer and high five each other…
(@denverwestword) pic.twitter.com/gJJXiaCrTe
In 2020, the CD4 Republican nominee was accused of causing serious injuries to a former sister-in-law in Moab, Utah, after bailing out of a Jeep she was driving (with the woman inside) moments before it crashed. The watchdog group American Muckrakers PAC and its president, David Wheeler, came forward in 2022 with recordings of the alleged victim describing what happened and other evidence detailing the alleged incident, but authorities declined to investigate, citing no reports of Jeep accidents at the time.
Before those incidents, Boebert was arrested twice in Mesa County in 2015 for an altercation with police and then missing her court date. Her criminal record also includes a charge of disorderly conduct for verbal altercations and dog-code violations related to the alleged harassment of a neighbor and her pooches.
Boebert's son, Tyler, has more recent arrests and traffic offenses, as well.
In 2022, charges were filed against the nineteen-year-old for a crash in Glenwood Springs that left one of his friends hospitalized after Tyler flipped his dad's SUV over in a creek bed. Tyler, who was underage at the time, was hit with a misdemeanor traffic charge of "careless driving causing bodily harm," which was later dropped down to a "defective vehicle for headlights" ticket.
"It's just like she did in Moab," the friend, Noble D'Amato, told Westword in April 2023. "They've tried covering up stuff before."
The past six months have been a bumpy ride for Boebert as she's dealt with multiple controversies, the CD4 primary election and criminal cases involving Tyler and her ex-husband, Jayson, who was hit with charges of assault, disorderly conduct, criminal trespass, prohibited use of a weapon, harassment and obstruction of a peace officer for two different incidents involving her and Tyler.
Boebert will spend the next several months trying to stay out of trouble as she attempts to beat Trisha Calvarese for the CD4 seat in the November election. She moved to the district earlier this year after leaving CD3.
This post has been updated to include details of Congresswoman Lauren Boebert's erred payment to the Department of Revenue.
