Municipal Criminal Ordinances

Municipal Criminal Ordinances

City of Durango, Colorado

The following is a list of selected Municipal Criminal Ordinances that is pertinent to the Fort Lewis College community. This page is provided as a courtesy and a resource and is not intended to be comprehensive. It should be noted here that Fort Lewis College police officers are empowered to enforce ALL statutes of the state of Colorado, the county of LaPlata, the city of Durango, and the Student Code of Conduct for Fort Lewis College which all incoming students must acknowlege and agree to before they are granted admission to the college. Many of these municipal statutes mirror C. R. S. statutes word for word. Fort Lewis College expects all members of its community to conduct themselves as citizens and scholars. Violations of the Student Conduct Code (on or OFF campus), may result in disciplinary action initiated by the college.

MCO 17-19.      Resisting arrest.
MCO 17-20.     Obstructing a peace officer, firefighter, emergency medical services provider, rescue specialist, code enforcement officer, volunteer, public safety communications technician, or other public official.
MCO 17-21.      Peace officers and public officials—False representation.
MCO 17-22.      Refusing to aid a peace officer.
MCO 17-23.      Failure to disperse.
MCO 17-24.      Loitering.
MCO 17-26.      Possession or use of marijuana prohibited.
MCO 17-27.      Possession of drug paraphernalia prohibited.
MCO 17-31.      Throwing missiles.
MCO 17-32.      False reporting.
MCO 17-40.      Assault, Battery, Intimidation, Menacing or Reckless Endangerment.
MCO 17-41.      Disorderly conduct.
MCO 17-42.      Disturbing the peace.
MCO 17-56.      Malicious injury to property.
MCO 17-57.      Trespassing.
MCO 17-60.      Obstructing public streets, places or buildings.
MCO 17-61.      Damage or injury to public property.
MCO 17-62.      Bicycles, roller skates, etc., on public property.
MCO 17-78.      Theft of rental property.
MCO 17-101.    Obscene conduct.
MCO 17-102.    Indecent exposure.
MCO 17-103.    Public indecency.
MCO 17-116.    Definitions.
MCO 17-117.    Concealed weapons.
MCO 17-118.    Discharge of firearms.
MCO 17-119.    Exceptions; permits.
MCO 17-120.    Furnishing weapons and other articles to prisoners.
MCO 17-132.    Misrepresentation of age for unlawful purpose.
MCO 17-133.    Procuring forbidden articles for minors.

MCO 17-19. Resisting arrest.

It shall be unlawful for a person knowingly to prevent or attempt to prevent a peace officer, acting under color of their official authority, from effecting an arrest of the actor or another, by:

(a) using or threatening to use physical force or violence against the peace officer or another; or

(b) using any other means which creates a risk of causing bodily injury to the peace officer or another.

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MCO 17-20. Obstructing a peace officer, firefighter, emergency medical services provider, rescue specialist, code enforcement officer, volunteer, public safety communications technician, or other public official.

It shall be unlawful for any person knowingly to obstruct, impair, or hinder the enforcement of the municipal code or the preservation of the public health, safety or welfare by knowingly using or threatening to use violence, force, obstacle, or physical interference against any peace officer, firefighter, emergency medical services provider, rescue specialist, code enforcement officer, volunteer, public safety communications technician or other public official, in the performance of their official duties.

It shall be unlawful for any person to make a telephone call or cause a telephone call to be made to the Durango-La Plata County Communications Center telephone number when such person makes the call with the intent to obstruct or interfere with the operation of the telephone system or to annoy or harass any person operating the Communications Center telephone system.

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MCO 17-21. Peace officers and public officials—False representation.

It shall be unlawful for any person, knowingly, to falsely represent themselves to be a peace officer or other public official of the city or to attempt to impersonate any such officer or official in order to perform, or to attempt to perform, without authority, any official act therein on behalf of an officer or public official.

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MCO 17-22. Refusing to aid a peace officer.

It shall be unlawful for any person eighteen (18) years of age or older, to unreasonably refuse or fail to aid a peace officer in effecting or securing an arrest or to prevent the commission by another of any unlawful act, upon command by a person known by them to be a peace officer.

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MCO 17-23. Failure to disperse.

It shall be unlawful for any person to fail or refuse immediately to disperse upon an order to do so by a peace officer, when two (2) or more persons are assembled for the purpose of disturbing the peace or for the purpose of committing any unlawful act.

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MCO 17-24. Loitering.

Loitering defined. The word “loiter” means to be dilatory, to stand idly around, to linger, delay, or wander about, or to remain, abide, or tarry in a public place, or upon private property after having been requested to leave any such private property by a person in control of such premises.

It shall be unlawful for any person to loiter for the purpose of begging, or to loiter after being requested to leave any public building, public place, or private property by a person in control of any such premises.

It is unlawful for any person, with the intent to interfere with or disrupt the school program or with intent to interfere with or endanger schoolchildren, to loiter in or about a school building or grounds or within 100 feet of school grounds, either on foot or in or on any vehicle, when persons under the age of eighteen (18) are present in the building or on the grounds, when that person does not have any reason or relationship involving custody of or responsibility for a pupil, or any other specific, legitimate reason for being there, and has been asked to leave by a school administrator or by a representative thereof or by a peace officer.

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MCO 17-26. Possession or use of marijuana prohibited.

It shall be unlawful for any person to possess, or to openly and publicly display, consume, or use not more than one (1) ounce of marijuana. Marijuana shall be defined as set forth under C.R.S., §18-18-102 (18) or (19) for the purpose of this section.

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MCO 17-27. Possession of drug paraphernalia prohibited.

It shall be unlawful for any person to possess drug paraphernalia if that person knows, or reasonably should know, that the drug paraphernalia could be used under circumstances in violation of the laws of the State of Colorado or the City of Durango. Drug paraphernalia shall be defined as set forth under C.R.S., §18-18-426 for the purpose of this section.

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MCO 17-31. Throwing missiles.

It shall be unlawful to knowingly throw or project any stone, snowball or other missile at:

any person, unless done with the knowledge and consent of such person during a recognized athletic game and with a ball, puck or other object used in such game for such purpose;

(a) a building or other public or private property of another without the consent of the owner; or

(b) a vehicle or equipment designed for the transportation of persons or property while such vehicle or equipment is being operated, whether moving or not.

MCO 17-32. False reporting.

It shall be unlawful for any person to commit false reporting to authorities. False reporting shall be defined as follows:

(a) If a person knowingly causes a false alarm of fire or other emergency to be transmitted to or within an official or volunteer fire department, ambulance service, or any other government agency which deals with emergencies involving danger to life or property; or

(b) If a person makes a report or knowingly causes the transmission of a report to law enforcement authorities of a crime or other incident within their official concern when that person knows that it did not occur; or

(c) If a person makes a report or knowingly causes the transmission of a report to law enforcement authorities pretending to furnish information relating to an offense or other incident within their official concern when that person knows that they have no such information or knows that the information is false; or

(d) If a person knowingly provides false identifying information to law enforcement authorities.

MCO 17-40. Assault, Battery, Intimidation, Menacing or Reckless Endangerment.

(a) Assault. It shall be unlawful for any person to commit an assault. An assault is hereby defined as an unlawful attempt or offer, coupled with the apparent present ability to make or cause forceful contact with the person of another under circumstances which create a reasonable apprehension of imminent forceful contact.

(b) Battery. It shall be unlawful for any person to commit a battery. It is a violation of this section for a person to intentionally and unlawfully make forceful contact with the person of another by their person or by projecting something under their control, such as throwing a stone.

(c) Intimidation. It is a violation of this section for any person, alone or with others, without legal authority to do so, to communicate, through voice or other means, a threat to another to confine or restrain them, or to damage their person, property or reputation, either at a time coincident with such threat or at a time in the future. Such threat must be reasonably construed to be the same and must reasonably induce fear that the perpetrator can carry out the threat, although the threatened person may act within their legal rights even in light of the fear.

(d) Menacing. It is a violation of this section for any person, by any threat or physical action, to knowingly place or attempt to place another person in fear of imminent serious bodily injury.

(e) Reckless endangerment. It is a violation of this section for any person to recklessly engage in conduct which creates a substantial risk of serious bodily injury to another person.

MCO 17-41. Disorderly conduct.

A person commits disorderly conduct if that person intentionally, knowingly or recklessly:

makes a coarse and obviously offensive utterance, gesture or display in a public place or on public property, and the utterance, gesture or display tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace; or

(a) makes unreasonable noise in a public place, on public property or near a private residence that the person has no right to occupy; or

(b) fights with another in a public place or on public property except in an amateur or professional contest of athletic skill; or

(c) not being a peace officer, in the course of their employment displays a deadly weapon, displays any article used or fashioned in a manner to cause a person to reasonably believe that the article is a deadly weapon, or represents verbally or otherwise that they are armed with a deadly weapon in a public place or on public property, in a manner calculated to alarm.

It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under subsection (a), (b) or (c) of this section that the actor had significant provocation for their abusive or threatening conduct.

MCO 17-42. Disturbing the peace.

It shall be unlawful for any person to intentionally, knowingly or recklessly harass, annoy, alarm or disturb the peace and quiet of another person, neighborhood, family or religious congregation or other assembly, by making an unreasonable noise or obviously offensive conduct.

For purposes of this section, a member of the police department is empowered to make a prima facie determination as to whether such noise or conduct constitutes a disturbance of the peace.

MCO 17-56. Malicious injury to property.

It shall be unlawful for any person to either willfully, maliciously, wantonly, knowingly, negligently or in any other manner injure, deface, mutilate, remove, pull down, break, interfere with, molest, secrete or destroy any real or personal property belonging to or under the control of the city or any other person.

MCO 17-57. Trespassing.

Definitions. As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires:

“Premises” means any real estate and all improvements erected thereon.

A person “enters unlawfully” or “remains unlawfully” in or upon premises when the person is not licensed, invited, or otherwise privileged to do so. A person who, regardless of their intent, enters or remains in or upon premises that are at the time open to the public, does so with license and privilege unless the person defies a lawful order not to enter or remain, personally communicated to them by the owner of the premises or some other authorized person. A license or privilege to enter or remain in a building that is only partially open to the public is not a license or privilege to enter or remain in that part of the building that is not open to the public.

It shall be unlawful for any person to enter or remain in or upon premises of another which are enclosed in a manner designed to exclude intruders, are fenced, or are posted with “no trespass” signs or if such person knowingly and unlawfully enters or remains in or upon the common areas of a hotel, motel, condominium or apartment building, without permission.

It shall be unlawful for any person to take down any fence, let down any bars, or to open any gate or door into or on any property of another without the consent of the owner, occupant, or person in control thereof.

It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly enter in or remain upon or lodge in or use or occupy any barn, garage, shed, shop, house, building, other structure, motor vehicle, railroad car or other vehicle without the permission of the owner or person in control thereof.

It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly lodge in or camp upon any public way, public park, public place, or public building.

It shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly, during the nighttime, enter upon any privately owned premises of another which is not open to the use of the public, unless that person has first obtained the consent of the owner or person in possession or control thereof.

It shall be unlawful for any person to remain on the premises of another after being requested to leave by the owner, agent of the owner, tenant or any person in possession or control of the premises, or by returning to the premises within twenty-four (24) hours from the request to leave or within such other period of time as may be specified in the request, without the permission of the owner, agent of the owner, tenant or any person in possession or control of the premises.

MCO 17-60. Obstructing public streets, places or buildings.

(a)An individual or entity commits an offense if, without legal privilege, such individual or entity intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly:

(1)obstructs a highway, street, alley, parking lot, sidewalk, railway, waterway, building entrance, elevator, aisle, stairway or hallway to which the public or a substantial group of the public has access, or any other place used for the passage of persons, vehicles or conveyances, whether the obstruction arises from that person’s acts alone or from their acts combined with the acts of others; or

(2) disobeys a reasonable request or order to move issued by a person the individual or entity knows or has reason to know to be a peace officer, a firefighter or a person with authority to control the use of the premises, to prevent obstruction of a highway or passageway or to maintain public safety by dispersing those gathered in close proximity to a hazardous situation including, but not limited to: a fire, riot, crime scene, traffic accident or other hazard.

(b)For purposes of this section, “obstruct” means to render impassable or to render passage unreasonably inconvenient or hazardous.

MCO 17-61. Damage or injury to public property.

It shall be unlawful for any person other than authorized personnel or employees of the city to cut, break, dig, pull up, deface, destroy or in any manner injure or damage any tree, shrub, bush, vine, flower, grass, plant, pipe or hose or any of the buildings, structures, signs, fences, seats, benches, fountains, maintenance equipment, playground equipment or ornaments of any kind within any of the public parks or other public property of the city.

MCO 17-62. Bicycles, roller skates, etc., on public property.

It shall be unlawful for any person to ride or use a bicycle, roller skate, skateboard or other similar device, whether or not motorized, upon public sidewalks, public parking lots or other public property of the city within the central business district, which, for purposes of this section, is defined by boundaries extending from the south side of 5th Street to include the sidewalk to the south, Camino Del Rio to the west, 15th Street to the north and the alley between East Second Avenue and East Third Avenue to the east. This prohibition shall not include the use of rolling devices by disabled persons upon public sidewalks, within public parking lots or on other publicly owned property.

MCO 17-78. Theft of rental property.

(a) It shall be unlawful for any person to obtain the temporary use of personal property of another, which is available only for hire, by means of threat or deception, or knowing that such use is without the consent of the person providing the personal property; or

(b) having lawfully obtained possession for temporary use of the personal property of another which is available only for hire, to knowingly fail to reveal the whereabouts of or to return said property to the owner thereof or their representative, or to the person from whom they have received it, within seventy-two (72) hours after the time at which that person agreed to return it.

MCO 17-101. Obscene conduct.

It is unlawful for any person to urinate or defecate in the public view, whether in or on public or private property, except in a room or area designated and equipped for such purposes.

MCO 17-102. Indecent exposure.

It shall be unlawful for any person to appear in a state of nudity or in any indecent or lewd dress or condition in any public place or within such public place to make any indecent exposure of their person or private parts thereof or the private parts of another, or to conduct themselves in a lewd or lascivious manner.

It shall be unlawful for any female person over the age of twelve (12) years to appear in any public place clothed or costumed in such manner that the portion of her breasts consisting of the nipple and the pigmented area adjacent thereto, otherwise defined as the areola, is not fully covered with a completely opaque covering.

MCO 17-103. Public indecency.

A person commits public indecency if that person performs any of the following in a public place or where the conduct may reasonably be expected to be viewed by members of the public:

(a) an act of sexual intercourse; or

(b) an act of deviant sexual intercourse; or

(d) a lewd fondling or caress of the body of another person.

ARTICLE VIII. OFFENSES RELATING TO WEAPONS

MCO 17-116. Definitions.

The following words, terms and phrases, when used in this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section, except where the context clearly indicates a different meaning:

Firearm means any instrument used in the propulsion of shot, shell or bullets or other harmful objects by the action of gunpowder exploded within it, by the action of compressed air within it, or by the power of springs and includes what are commonly known as bb-guns, pellet guns, gas guns and paint ball guns.

Knife or knives means dagger, dirk, knife or stiletto with a blade over three and one-half (3½) inches in length, or any other dangerous instrument capable of inflicting cutting, stabbing or tearing wounds, but does not include a hunting or fishing knife carried for sports use.

MCO 17-117. Concealed weapons.

It shall be unlawful for any person to carry concealed upon their person any brass knuckles, firearm, revolver, pistol, dagger, stiletto or other deadly weapon, except as may be permitted by applicable state law.

MCO 17-118. Discharge of firearms.

It shall be unlawful for any person to discharge firearms of any kind or description within the limits of the city; provided however, this prohibition shall not apply to police officers in the discharge of their duties.

MCO 17-119. Exceptions; permits.

The city manager may, at any time, upon receipt of proper application, grant permits to shooting galleries, gun clubs and others for shooting in fixed localities and under specified rules. Such permits shall be in writing attested by the clerk conforming to such requirements as the city manager shall demand, and the permit thus issued shall be subject to revocation at any time by action of the city manager.

MCO 17-120. Furnishing weapons and other articles to prisoners.

It shall be unlawful for any person to furnish, attempt to furnish, take into any jail, or to deliver or attempt to deliver to any prisoner confined in such jail, or in the custody of any officer, any weapon, tool, intoxicating liquors, drugs or other article without the consent of the officer in charge.

MCO 17-132. Misrepresentation of age for unlawful purpose.

It shall be unlawful for any person to make false statements, or to furnish, present, or exhibit any fictitious or false registration card, identification card, or note or other document, or to furnish, present, or exhibit such document or documents issued to a person other than the one presenting the same for the purpose of gaining admission to pool or billiard rooms or other prohibited places, or for the purpose of procuring the sale, gift, or delivery of prohibited articles, including, but not limited to beer, liquor, wine, cigarettes and tobacco.

MCO 17-133. Procuring forbidden articles for minors.

(a) It shall be unlawful for any underage person to engage or utilize the services of any other person, whether for remuneration or not, to procure for such underage person any article which the underage person, as a result of his or her age, is forbidden by law to purchase.

(b) It shall be unlawful for any person, whether for remuneration or not, to procure for any underage person any article which the underage person is forbidden by law to purchase.