Lauren Boebert Begs for Soft Ruling in Son's Sentencing

I have written down some remarks that I would like to read to you if you don't mind. Of course. Your Honor, I have kept quiet on this case and others in the past and that was not a matter of distance of my son. It was a matter of protection and I'm here now as a mother and as a grandmother and I'm here today because he is my son and this is the room where it matters for me to show up and speak on his behalf. My son has accepted responsibility for these charges. He is not standing here today to argue that nothing happened. He is standing here because he made unfortunate mistakes, errors in judgment, and those mistakes did put his son and my grandson at potential risk. Your Honor, I want to thank you for allowing me to speak to what kind of a father Tyler is and what jail would do to his little boy. Tyler is a single father who works and then comes home. And Your Honor, that is not a talking point. That is his life. He is not a troubled man drifting through the world. He has a job. He has a child who he loves and a home that he is trying to hold together. The two incidences before you were not acts of cruelty. They were failures of communication and attention. Nothing that we are denying. There was no injury. There was no intent to harm. There was a child, my grandson, who got away from him when he should have had tighter control of the home and his child. He knows that. I know that. He has said that. He is not asking this court to pretend that it did not matter. Regarding Tyler's first charge, he did his best to ensure that his son was cared for. And even Colorado state law, it could be up to six months that a parent puts their child in care in the custody of someone that they trust before any other action would be taken. And unfortunately, when he was left taking care of legal responsibilities that day, the person that was left in charge, while normally is responsible in every sense of the term, was not as attentive as he should have been. And my grandson was able to, for the first time, escape our home and immediately went straight to the park that was directly across the street from the home that we then lived in and we played at daily. The second charge, my son was with Josiah for many hours as I was on the road that day and didn't want him strapped into a car seat. We were all unaware that one of our, just one of our child safety locks on the front door had been broken and manipulated just, it seems like the day prior. And to us, it still appeared to be operational, if you would like me to explain that I can. But my grandson was able to open the front door and my son, once he saw the door was open, immediately went in that direction in the front of the house and was looking for him for quite some time. I arrived home and noticed that he was looking for Josiah and immediately went to the backyard where there is a body of water. My grandson is in emergency infant swim lessons, has been, and we do take him swimming regularly, but that still is no excuse. And so I immediately went toward the body of water. And that is where I saw a woman and her daughter who had care of him. We certainly celebrated his safety. She did not know where to return him. And she told me that he was near the dock where there were many other teenagers that were the same age as uncles that he plays with on a daily basis that were all gathered. Your honor, what Tyler is asking, what I am asking is that you punish the failure without destroying the family that is left. Jail does not teach a young father how to keep a toddler from walking out a door. Jail does not take him, jail takes him out of that child's daily life. It takes a paycheck out of that home and it turns a parenting problem into a hole in a little boy's life. My grandson needs his father home working and under whatever supervision classes, which he's already completed one course to my knowledge and has began a second course. And whatever other conditions this court believes will actually make the home safer and my grandson's well-being safer. Mercy here, your honor, is not softness. Mercy is the difference between correcting a father and orphaning a child for the hours that matter most. I'm asking this court for grace, no jail time, allow him to keep his job, allow him to keep coming home to Josiah, put him on probation, order the parenting and safety conditions you deem necessary, your honor, and hold him to it. And if he fails those conditions, the court will still have every tool it needs. He has made mistakes. He has taken responsibility. He is the parent that this child has. And I'm asking you to let him stay that parent under the law, not behind it. The best protection for my grandson, Tyler's child, is a father who is home, employed, and supervised, not a father that is in a cell. Thank you, your honor, so much for your time.