The most dangerous aspect of red flag laws is that the petitioner can lie in order to get someone’s guns taken away by the court.
Enter Susan Holmes, a Fort Collins, Colorado woman who was grieving the 2017 killing of her son Jeremy by a Colorado State University police officer, who was cleared of any wrongdoing in the shooting.
Holmes filed an Extreme Risk Protection Order petition in 2020 against CSU Cpl. Phillip Morris, one of the two officers involved in her son’s death. In her petition, which Colorado law states must be filed by a family member, Holmes lied under oath stating that she and Cpl. Morris have a child in common. To be clear, Holmes and Morris have never been involved in a relationship of any kind. She lied on the petition, pure and simple.
A Colorado judge rejected Holmes’ petition shortly after it was filed, because she was unable to produce any evidence that she and the officer had a relationship of any kind, much less an intimate one.
Holmes told reporters after that hearing that “I do not feel I’ve perjured myself.”
Last week, the court didn’t buy her argument. She was convicted of perjury and attempting to influence a public servant — both Class 4 felonies punishable by up to $500,000 in fines and six years in prison. She will be sentenced June 1.
There is no doubt that Holmes’ prosecution was prompted by the fact her victim is a police officer. If she had chosen to victimize a civilian with her false red-flag claims would the prosecution have been as timely?
Red Flag laws of any kind are unconstitutional because they deny due process.
This red flag fiasco ended well, but how many guns have been illegally confiscated because someone lied under oath and their victim didn’t have a badge in their billfold?
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