A Cortez man who has been charged in federal court with making threats against election officials, judges, and government agents will remain in custody until the case ends.
At a combined detention and preliminary hearing in U.S. District Court in Durango on Tuesday, Teak Ty Brockbank, 45, was found to be a danger to the community and a flight risk.
Brockbank reportedly had six firearms in his home at the time of his arrest despite the fact that he is a convicted felon.
Magistrate Judge James Candelaria granted the government’s motion to detain Brockbank pending the outcome of the case.
The hearing, which lasted more than two hours, consisted largely of the testimony of the government’s sole witness, FBI special agent Greg Kloepper of the Denver Field Office.
Under examination by prosecuting attorney Jonathan Jacobson, Kloepper testified that he is a member of a team who reviewed social-media evidence in the case and that he could attest to the accuracy of the evidence presented in the criminal complaint.
He said in 2022, election officials in Colorado and Arizona reported a series of threats on social-media platforms.
The prosecution displayed screen shots of some of the threats posted by a user going by “Teakty4u” on the sites Gab and Rumble. The reason the online threats are judged to be federal violations is because Gab and Rumble don’t have servers in Colorado, so their operations are interstate.
One comment, posted on Gab in 2021, said an election official “has to Hang by the neck till she is Dead Dead Dead.”
Another post by the same user in July 2022 said, “ATF CIA FBI show up to my house I am shooting them peace’s of shit first No Warning!! Then I will call the sheriff!!!. . .”
Also in July 2022, the same user posted (in regard to supposed election fraud in Colorado): “so the cheating continues. We are gonna have to take care of these people ourselves. Our law-enforcement are incompetent our judges are incompetent. . . It’s time for the American people to take matters into their own hands start eliminating those that we know are guilty!! There is no other way! Mark my words. We have to go to war with these people right now!!”
On Rumble, in October 2021, the user reportedly posted: “The judge making the decisions for Montezuma County in Colorado… Cortez Communist Colorado is a Nazi. …. What can I do to stop this MAN. . . . 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!!!”
Kloepper testified that the FBI tracked down the person linked to the accounts, and it was Brockbank. He said in October 2023 they called his phone to ask him about the posts, and Brockbank responded by saying agents were scum and hanging up.
“Usually when people realize the FBI is involved, they apologize or explain or disconnect,” Kloepper testified. “Usually the comments stop.”
But according to him the posts continued after that, now on Truth Social, but with the same user name and same logo, a green frog icon.
In July 2024, Kloepper testified, a threatening message about an election official was posted to the Truth Social account, with the comment “cHANGe” at the end of the post. The prosecution noted that the letters spelling “hang” were capitalized.
Another Truth Social post by the same user said the IRS is the enemy of the people and “death to all government officials,” the agent testified.
Kloepper said “these threats were real and credible” and “very, very concerning.”
Brockbank was arrested not at his home but when he left it on Aug. 23. In a subsequent interview with law enforcement, Kloepper testified, Brockbank said he understood why agents would not want to come to his house, and indicated there would have been harm done to them if they had.
Six firearms were found at his home, Kloepper said, including one AR-15, and a handgun sitting by the front door. The handgun was loaded, chambered, and cocked, he said.
Brockbank told law officers the firearms belonged to him, Kloepper testified. However, because he was convicted in Utah in 2002 of a felony charge of receiving stolen property, he is not allowed to possess firearms.
Defense attorney Thomas Ward of Denver established on cross-examination that the government did not have a witness who had actually seen Brockbank making the posts, and that there was no evidence that Brockbank had ever had direct contact with the election officials or judges he’d allegedly threatened.
However, Kloepper said, “This is an ongoing investigation and a lot of evidence is still being analyzed.”
Ward brought up the fact that many of the posts referred to treason, accusing government officials of that crime, and that treason is punishable by execution. He asked Kloepper if hanging is not one method of execution, and the agent said “not now.”
Ward also said there were different ways to interpret the posts and asked whether people “talk tough” online.
Kloepper responded that he didn’t understand what Ward meant by “talk tough,” and the two wrangled over that briefly. Finally Kloepper said of the internet in general, “It’s a dirty place.”
On redirect examination, Jacobson asked whether the posts showed any indication that a judicial process would be involved in deciding whether the threatened officials were guilty of treason before they were killed, and Kloepper said no.
“Who does he suggest is going to undertake the violent actions?” Jacobson asked.
“Himself,” Kloepper said.
Ward called the defense’s only witness, Brockbank’s mother, who said she also lives in Cortez and talks to her son almost daily. She presented a different side of him, saying he lives in a house with an elderly relative who has brain damage.
Brockbank is responsible for cooking for and taking care of his relative, she testified. He doesn’t have a regular job, she said, but they receive money from a government program.
Listening to her, Brockbank sometimes wiped his eyes.
She said Brockbank, who reportedly has a record of four DUIs, had a drinking problem. “When he was drunk, he’d get violent and say violent things,” she testified. But afterward, he would be sorry, she said.
He has been sober for more than a year, she said.
On cross-examination, Jacobson read from what he said was a text from Brockbank to his mother: “The only way to stop the wicked is for good men to kill them. . . you guys know I’m justified and I am right.”
In another message that Jacobson read, Brockbank allegedly said, “I think people like me should and have to start doing the judging here on earth.”
His mother responded that she doesn’t read every text he sends because he sends so many, and that she didn’t recall those specific ones.
Jacobson also noted that some of the texts and posts presented in court were reportedly made in 2024, when she said Brockbank was sober.
Asked about him speaking of killing people, she said, “I know my son would never do anything like that.”
Jacobson asked her about Brockbank possessing six firearms. She said people in her family hunt and they all own firearms.
“Just because you have guns doesn’t mean you’re going to do something violent,” she said.
At the end of the preliminary hearing, Ward said that the defense would not contest the fact that there was probable cause to hold Brockbank over.
The hearing then moved into whether he should be released from custody while awaiting trial.
Jacobson argued that a local judge remains concerned about their safety because of Brockbank’s posts. He noted that while Brockbank doesn’t have a history of violence, he does have a history of failing to appear in court, with four incidents of that.
Ward argued that Brockbank has ties to the community, he likely doesn’t have the means to go anywhere else, and conditions could be placed on his release that would ensure the safety of the community. For instance, he could be allowed no access to the internet, and he could have an ankle monitor that detects alcohol in the blood.
In making his ruling, Candelaria said that the defendant supposedly quit drinking over a year ago, “but we have threats less than a month ago.”
He continued, “If he stopped drinking and is still making threats, maybe it’s more than being a mean drunk.”
Candelaria also said it seemed dangerous for Brockbank to keep a loaded and cocked gun by the front door when he was living with a brain-damaged relative.
He then ordered that Brockbank remain in custody until the case is concluded.
The matter will now go before a grand jury, according to Jeff Colwell, clerk of court for the U.S. District of Colorado. He told KSJD by phone that because of the felony offense, a grand jury now has to hear the evidence.
