Colorado man charged with threatening election officials pleads guilty

A Colorado man who was federally indicted with threatening election officials and other government employees in August pleaded guilty on Wednesday to sending an interstate threat.

Teak Ty Brockbank, 45, of Cortez, made several threats toward election officials in Colorado and Arizona, a Colorado state judge and federal law enforcement agents in 2021 and 2022.

Brockbank's sentencing hearing is scheduled for Feb. 3, 2025. He can face up to 5 years in prison.

"We allege that the defendant made detailed death threats against election officials, judges, and law enforcement officers," Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said when Brockbank was indicted. "Violent threats against public servants are a danger to our democracy, and the arrest and charges announced today make clear that the Justice Department will see to it that perpetrators answer for their actions."  

The names of the people Brockbank was accused of threatening were redacted from court records, but the indictment details several threats he made via social media and in text messages.

According to the indictment, one social media post from Brockbank says, in part, "she has to Hang by the neck till she is Dead Dead Dead. There will be accountability for these peoples actions in Communist Colorado and it won't be judges and it won't be weakmided cops that bring it!!! It will be Me it will be You it Will be every day people that understand that there life does not matter anymore with the future our country has laid out before it."

Another message listed in the indictment shows a threat against a Colorado state judge reads, in part, "I could pick up my rifle and I could go put a bullet in this Mans head and send him to explain himself to our Creator right now. I would be Justified!!! Not only justified but obligated by those in my family who fought and died for the freedom in this country. . . . What can I do other than kill this man my self?"

Colorado has seen top election officials leave their posts at a rate higher than the national average, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Many of them and others in election offices have cited threats against them, their offices and their employees as at least one of the reasons for the exodus.

"I never thought in my multiple years in elections that threats and attacks would be aimed at such a personal level," Weld County Clerk Carly Koppes told CBS News Colorado last month.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, the top election official in the state, denounced Brockbank in a statement Wednesday. While the indictment doesn't name anyone he threatened by name, Griswold's office said in that statement that she was one of the people he named.

"Threats of political violence towards election officials are unacceptable and must stop," Griswold said. "I refuse to be intimidated and will continue to make sure every eligible Republican, Democrat, and Unaffiliated voter can make their voices heard in our elections. I appreciate law enforcement's efforts on these cases."

At the same time, a Florida man was indicted for threatening Griswold and other officials. According to federal investigators, he emailed and texted expletive- and slur-laced messages to over 40 people.

Richard Glenn Kantwill, 60, of Tampa, has been charged with three counts of interstate transmission of a threat to injure. If convicted, he'd face up to 15 years in prison.

That indictment also doesn't name the people threatened, but Griswold's team said Kantwill sent her a threat on Feb. 9, the day after the U.S. Supreme Court heard a case pertaining to former President Donald Trump's eligibility to run for president in Colorado.

Griswold says she's received more than 1,000 threats of violence or death since September 2023.