Colorado Court of Appeals People v. Moore 11CA2338

Decision here.

   Roger Moore was arrested after an altercation with a private security guard at the Denver City and County Building.  According to the prosecution, he cut in front of someone else in line, put some belongings on the conveyor belt for the x-ray machine, walked through the metal detector, and then tried to collect his property which had not yet been passed through the x-ray.  When a 65 year old security guard tried to stop him, he grabbed her and shoved her (causing an injury to her shoulder).

   Moore was charged with third degree assault on an at-risk adult and with impeding a public official or employee at a public building.  He was acquitted of the assault charge and convicted of the impeding charge, but he appealed his conviction.

   The relevant text in § 18-9-110(2) says:"[n]o person shall, at or in any such public building, willfully impede any public official or employee in the lawful performance of duties or activities through the use of restraint, abduction, coercion, or intimidation or by force and violence or threat thereof." 

   The Colorado Court of Appeals held that a private security guard working at a public building is not a public employee for the purposes of this statute, and vacated Moore's conviction.