Man pleads guilty to threatening officials in Colorado and Arizona, including Katie Hobbs
Oct 24, 2024, 8:44 AM
Teak Brockbank of Cortez, Colorado, pleaded guilty to threatening officials in his state and Arizona on Oct. 23, 2024. (Pexels Photo)
(Pexels Photo)
PHOENIX – A Colorado man pleaded guilty Wednesday to threatening officials in his state and Arizona, including Gov. Katie Hobbs, authorities said.
After initially pleading not guilty, 45-year-old Teak Brockbank reversed course and pleaded guilty to one count of transmitting interstate threats, according to the Department of Justice.
The resident of Cortez in southwestern Colorado is scheduled to be sentenced in February 2025.
Hobbs was Arizona’s secretary of state at the time she was targeted. Brockbank also threatened to kill Colorado elections officials, a state judge and law enforcement agents, according to prosecutors.
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How was Colorado man caught threatening officials?
Brockbank was arrested in August of this year after investigators linked him to social media accounts that made a series of death threats from September 2021 to July 2024, prosecutors said.
The investigation was launched in August 2022 after Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold’s office notified federal authorities of posts made on Gab and Rumble, an alternative video-sharing platform that has been criticized for allowing and sometimes promoting far-right extremism, according to court documents.
For example, a post referring to separate election officials in Arizona and Colorado stated: “Once those people start getting put to death then the rest will melt like snowflakes and turn on each other. … This is the only way. So those of us that have the stomach for what has to be done should prepare our minds for what we all [a]re going to do!!!!!! It is time.”
Per a detention motion, Brockbank told investigators that he’s not a vigilante and that he hoped his posts would simply “wake people up.”
The case, which is part of the Department of Justice’s Election Threats Task Force, is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Colorado.
Brockbank’s guilty plea came two days after an Alabama man was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison for making online threats toward Maricopa County election workers in 2022.
Brian Ogstad, a 60-year-old resident of Cullman in northern Alabama, had pleaded guilty in July to one count of making a threatening interstate communication.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
