Page:Counterman v. Colorado.pdf/5

2 (“Good morning sweetheart”; “I am going to the store would you like anything?”)—except that they were coming from a total stranger. 3 App. 465. Others suggested that Counterman might be surveilling C. W. He asked “[w]as that you in the white Jeep?”; referenced “[a] fine display with your partner”; and noted “a couple [of] physical sightings.” 497 P. 3d 1039, 1044 (Colo. App. 2021). And most critically, a number expressed anger at C. W. and envisaged harm befalling her: “Fuck off permanently.” Ibid. “Staying in cyber life is going to kill you.” Ibid. “You’re not being good for human relations. Die.” Ibid.

The messages put C. W. in fear and upended her daily existence. She believed that Counterman was “threat[ening her] life”; “was very fearful that he was following” her; and was “afraid [she] would get hurt.” 2 App. 177, 181, 193. As a result, she had “a lot of trouble sleeping” and suffered from severe anxiety. Id., at 200; see id., at 194–198. She stopped walking alone, declined social engagements, and canceled some of her performances, though doing so caused her financial strain. See id., at 182–183, 199, 201–206, 238–239. Eventually, C. W. decided that she had to contact the authorities. Id., at 184.

Colorado charged Counterman under a statute making it unlawful to “[r]epeatedly … make[] any form of communication with another person” in “a manner that would cause a reasonable person to suffer serious emotional distress and does cause that person … to suffer serious emotional distress.” Colo. Rev. Stat. §18–3–602(1)(c) (2022). The only evidence the State proposed to introduce at trial were his Facebook messages.