A man accused of threatening to kill Democratic election officials is likely to plead guilty

DENVER (AP) — A man accused of repeatedly threatening to kill top election officials in Colorado and Arizona as well as judges and federal law enforcement officials is expected to plead guilty in federal court on Wednesday.

Teak Ty Brockbank, 45, of Cortez, Colorado, has been jailed since his arrest on August 23. He is now scheduled to appear in court for a change of plea hearing after previously pleading not guilty to one count of interstate threats. His lawyer told the court that Brockbank wanted to change his plea. In federal court, “guilty” is the only other option.

According to an arrest motion, Brockbank told investigators that he was not a “vigilante” and that he hoped his posts would simply “wake people up.”

Investigators say Brockbank began expressing the view that violence against public officials was necessary in late 2021 and subsequently made several threats against Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold and former Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, now the state’s governor. and said the others.

In an August 2022 post referring to Griswold and Hobbs, Brockbank allegedly said, “Once these people are executed, the others will melt like snowflakes and attack each other,” according to copies of the threats contained in the court documents . Griswold and Hobbs were not named as those allegedly targeted by Brockbank when he was first arrested, but were identified as victims in evidence unsealed in September.

The investigation was launched in August 2022 after Griswold’s office notified federal authorities about posts on Gab and Rumble, an alternative video-sharing platform that has been criticized for allowing and sometimes promoting right-wing extremism, according to court documents.

Brockbank also allegedly posted in October 2021 that he could use his rifle to “put a bullet in the head” of a state judge who was overseeing Brockbank’s suspended sentence for his fourth conviction for driving under the influence, calling the judge a “Nazi,” according to the report Prosecutors said in an Aug. 27 motion calling for Brockbank to be kept behind bars while he is prosecuted.

Prosecutors also say Brockbank posted in July 2022 that he would shoot any federal agent who showed up at his house without warning. Prosecutors said a half-dozen guns were found in his home after his arrest in August, including a loaded one near his front door, even though he doesn’t have legal firearms because of a 2002 conviction for attempted theft by receiving stolen property in Utah could own.

And although Brockbank was charged for allegedly making threats between September 2021 and August 2022, prosecutors allege he has continued since then.

In December 2023, after a divided Colorado Supreme Court removed Donald Trump from the state’s presidential ballot, Brockbank reportedly told his stepfather in a text that he was adding the four justices in the majority to “my list.”

And this July, Brockbank Griswold continued to threaten Griswold, according to prosecutors, because her office triggered an investigation into former Mesa County Clerk of Court Tina Peters by informing authorities about a 2021 data breach involving the county’s voting equipment. She has received threats in the past , because she insisted the 2020 election would be secure.

Peters was sentenced in October to nearly nine years in prison for allowing access to the county’s voting system to a man associated with My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell – a prominent proponent of false claims that voting machines were rigged to overturn the election to steal. Authorities were investigating various threats against her trial judge, Matthew Barrett, who admonished Peters during her sentencing. Most of the messages appear to be strongly worded opinions, but none rise to the level of a crime, Mesa County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Wendy Likes said Tuesday.

Brockbank was prosecuted by the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, which was created by Attorney General Merrick Garland to protect workers who have faced increasing threats since the 2020 election.

In 2022, a Nebraska man pleaded guilty to making death threats against Griswold, which officials said was the first such plea granted to the task force.

Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.