From Judge Neeti Pawar's opinion in People v. Hughes (Colo. Ct. App.), joined by Judges Anthony Navarro and Sueanna Johnson (decided last month, but just posted to Westlaw recently):
When Hughes returned from an overseas military deployment, his girlfriend, who lived in Virginia, A.B., met him in Colorado Springs. One night, they went to a bar where Hughes accused her of flirting with another patron, and they got into an argument. A.B. testified at trial that Hughes grabbed her and threw her to the ground outside the bar. When they returned to the hotel room they were staying in, Hughes destroyed the room, causing thousands of dollars in damage.
Over the next several months, they continued their relationship. A.B., her two-year-old daughter, and A.B.'s mother relocated to Colorado and moved in with Hughes. During this time, Hughes repeatedly accused A.B. of infidelity and repeatedly called her "whore," "slut," and "bitch."
The prosecution charged Hughes with several offenses, including as relevant here, criminal mischief for destroying the hotel room, third degree assault for his conduct outside the bar and in the hotel room, and multiple harassment counts.
The jury found Hughes not guilty of third degree assault and all but one of the harassment counts. The jury found him guilty of criminal mischief and the harassment count based on section 18-9-111(1)(h), C.R.S. 2023, for repeatedly insulting A.B. over the course of several months.
Hughes eventually sought to get the conviction vacated on the grounds that "both trial and appellate counsel were ineffective for failing to challenge the sufficiency of the evidence to support the harassment conviction because Hughes' speech was protected by the First Amendment," and the court agreed:
