BOULDER, COLORADO – Ariel Calonne, Boulder’s outgoing city attorney, was cited this week for misdemeanor harassment and criminal mischief following a dispute with one of his neighbors.
Beverly Potter called police Tuesday morning and said she had reprimanded Calonne for allowing his dog to walk on her property on the 3200 block of 11th Street. Calonne “responded … by telling her ‘that if she touched his dog that he would kick her ass,’” according to the police report.
Potter told officers that she then turned on her sprinklers to get Calonne’s dog off of her property, and said Calonne kicked the heads off of two of the sprinklers.
Calonne denied kicking the sprinkler heads when questioned by Officer Bud Kelt, according to a police report. Reached Friday evening, the city attorney said he couldn’t comment about the citation, except to say, “It’s an accusation that I’m confident will be found not to have any merit.”
Over the past three years, Calonne said Potter has made 53 complaints to police — three about him and 50 about other neighbors.
When contacted at home Friday night, Potter denied calling police that many times. Police records of prior reports made by Potter weren’t immediately available Friday.
During Calonne’s discussion with police earlier this week, he said he reminded officers of Potter’s past complaints, and asked them to consider his word against hers.
“Frankly, this is a sad going-away present from the Boulder police, as far as I’m concerned,” said Calonne, who this week accepted a new job as city attorney for Ventura, Calif. “I’ve had to retain counsel that has cost me several thousand dollars.”
Both Potter and Calonne told police they’d had problems in the past. Potter said she’d complained about Calonne to both the police chief and Frank Bruno, Boulder’s city manager.
Calonne told officers that one recent altercation had been sparked by his decision to try to trap and remove a skunk that had been visiting his family’s yard.
“He told me (Potter) started yelling at his wife and him, calling them murderers for trying to get the skunk trapped out of their yard,” Officer Kelt wrote in his report.
It’s not clear whether being cited for two misdemeanors could have any impact on Calonne’s legal career. Although he has accepted a new job in California, the City Council there hasn’t yet confirmed his contract, and he hasn’t resigned from his Boulder post.
Carl Morehouse, Ventura’s mayor, didn’t return a call Friday seeking comment about Calonne’s brush with the law.
Pat Furman, a criminal defense attorney and professor at the University of Colorado School of Law, said that, in Colorado, attorneys are required to report any conviction to the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel, which is overseen by the Colorado Supreme Court.
Officials there would take the nature of the offense into account, Furman said. Typically, he said, those officials are more concerned about offenses likely to affect a lawyer’s clients, such as a lawyer embezzling from his client.
“But they often hold appointed and elected officials to a higher standard than other lawyers,” Furman said. “The Colorado Supreme Court has made it clear that they hold prosecutors to particularly high standards. While (Calonne) isn’t a prosecutor in the traditional sense, he’s in charge of prosecutions for the city of Boulder.”
Furman said he’s not familiar with California’s disciplinary system, but said Colorado’s regulators expect lawyers to report any offenses or disciplinary action they’ve incurred in other states.
Calonne is due in court Aug. 15.
