Wyoming Rep. Gary Brown served Colorado prison time for felony intimidation, records show

More than three decades before Cheyenne voters elected Rep. Gary Brown in 2024, the Republican lawmaker served time in a Colorado prison for a felony conviction of intimidation of a witness and victim, according to court documents and police records obtained by WyoFile. 

Brown did not respond to voicemails or text messages from WyoFile or questions emailed to him Thursday. Wyoming restored his right to vote and hold public office, according to a copy of a certificate issued on Nov. 8, 2023, provided to WyoFile by the Wyoming Secretary of State’s Office.  

For most of Wyoming’s history, people with felony convictions were not allowed to vote or hold office. That changed in 2003 when the Wyoming Legislature passed a suffrage restoration process for those convicted of first-time, nonviolent offenses. It wasn’t until 2023 that lawmakers extended that process to other rights, including holding public office. The definition of a violent felony in state law does not include Brown’s offense, intimidation of a victim or witness. Someone with a felony conviction, regardless of the specific offense, must complete Wyoming’s restoration process to regain those rights, the Laramie County Clerk’s Office confirmed to WyoFile. 

Court documents show that in late 1991 Brown was charged with two felony intimidation counts stemming from alleged harassment of an ex-girlfriend and a friend of hers in Larimer County, Colorado, where he lived at the time. Three months into the case, prosecutors brought two additional charges against Brown — one felony count of criminal attempt to commit first-degree arson and one felony count of second-degree burglary of a dwelling. Police reports indicate that the property at the center of the case was Brown’s ex-girlfriend’s house in Loveland. 

Three of the four charges were dropped in 1992, according to court filings, when Brown agreed to plead guilty to one felony count of intimidating a witness and victim in relation to Patricia Aine. He was sentenced to four years and six months in prison.

WyoFile confirmed the Gary Brown in the Colorado criminal case matched the Gary Brown representing House District 41 by comparing his date of birth, middle initial and signature in court filings and police reports with the lawmaker’s candidate filing application and elected official disclosure form. 

It’s unclear when Brown, a retired electrician, became a Wyoming resident. He first voted in the state in 2024, according to Laramie County records. That same year, he ran for House District 41 and ousted incumbent Republican lawmaker Bill Henderson in the primary election and defeated Democratic candidate Jen Solis in the general election. 

In his first term in the Legislature, Brown has served on the House Revenue Committee and the House Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Committee. In 2025 and 2026, Brown unsuccessfully sponsored legislation that would have required local governments to reimburse defendants for costs incurred fighting criminal charges that resulted from the lawful use of self-defense. 

Brown is not a listed member of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus, nor did the group of Republicans endorse his 2024 campaign as it did with dozens of other legislative candidates. Brown, however, regularly votes alongside the caucus and co-sponsors legislation with its members. 

In a 2024 campaign testimonial for Brown, Jessie Rubino, Wyoming State Director for the State Freedom Caucus Network, backed Brown in her capacity as a House District 41 resident. 

“When Gary is elected, he will represent the true conservative values held by the people living in the heart of Cheyenne,” Rubino said in a campaign video on YouTube. 

Brown is now running for reelection to a second term. He faces opponents in both the primary and general elections. 

What the records show

Police reports indicate that Bonnie Scott reported Gary Brown to the Larimer County Sheriff’s Department for alleged harassment on Sept. 26, 1991. 

According to the report, Scott told Deputy Thomas Weis that Brown had called her at her home in Campion two days earlier. The call was one of several instances around that time when Scott said she answered the phone “from an unknown party who does not disconnect the line and continues on it,” the report states.  

By not hanging up, the caller left Scott unable to use her phone. She suspected the unknown caller was Brown, who she knew had recently broken up with her friend Patricia Aine, Weis wrote in the report. On Sept. 24 at approximately 7:20 a.m., when Scott’s phone rang, she picked up and confronted the caller, “calling him Gary,” the report states. 

“Eventually Gary Brown did come on the line and specifically said to her, ‘you are going to get it too,’” the report states.

Scott told Weis she was “extremely afraid” of Brown. 

“She has spoken directly with an ex-wife of Gary Brown and that he has made extremely threatening and harassment type contacts in the past,” Weis wrote. “She states that she does not know why he is doing this and she wants no contact with him what-so-ever.” 

WyoFile was not able to contact Aine or Scott for comment. 

When Weis visited Brown at his home on Sept. 28 to discuss Scott’s allegations, Brown denied making any calls to Scott. 

“He states that he does not even know the phone number of Bonnie Scott, that it is unlisted,” the report states. 

Brown, however, did say he had called the Health Department on both Scott and Aine “for boarding too many animals,” Weis wrote. 

When Brown stated “he did not believe that this was harassment,” Weis responded that he had spoken with “the Health Department and they had completed their investigation and it was unsubstantiated,” the report states. 

In response to Weis’ advisement not to have any contact with Scott, Brown said he “may have had some threats against him made possibly by the boyfriend of Bonnie Scott,” according to the report.

Weis noted in his report that at the time he was investigating another case involving “a boyfriend, girlfriend break-up type relationship in which Gary Brown is harassing the victim.” 

It’s not clear whether that case involved Patricia Aine, or a different ex-girlfriend, but Aine contacted the sheriff’s department roughly three weeks later to report that Brown had allegedly harassed her at the Sundance Steak House.  

On the evening of Oct. 11, 1991, Brown allegedly approached Aine several times at the country music venue on the eastern edge of Fort Collins, according to the report, and said things including: “You’re in for it now, you had to show up,” “Now you are going to lose your children,” “You had better watch your feet,” and “What are you looking for? Trouble? Turning me in?” 

The report says that on three separate occasions that evening at the steak house, Brown allegedly made physical contact with Aine “by bumping into her back.” At another point, Brown allegedly “walked past her and had turned towards her and formed a gun with his hand and pointed it at her,” Weis wrote. 

Aine told police she encountered Brown again the next evening at the same venue. The report states that when Brown “left the establishment for a period of time,” a regular patron approached Aine and warned her to “check her truck because Gary Brown was noted for tampering and slashing tires of ex-girlfriends.” 

Her vehicle initially appeared untouched, according to the report. 

“However, on October 16, 1991, she had her car in for repairs and did discover that the gas line had been pushed against the headers and that it was leaking gas onto the head manifold,” Weis wrote. 

While mentioned in the report, alleged tampering with Aine’s vehicle was not included in Brown’s charges. 

Two days later, Aine called the sheriff’s department after she arrived home and smelled a gas leak. 

“Our investigation revealed that her residence had been entered through a partially secured sliding patio door and someone had cut the gas line to the furnace,” the report claimed. “It was further found that a lighted cigarette had been placed inside a book of matches and left on the victim’s floor, as well as the placing of plugged in curling irons left on the victim’s clothing.”

Aine told police that Brown was “the only person who would have motive and who has threatened to get her,” and “that he knows the residence for he lived with her prior to them breaking up.” 

On Oct. 22, 1991, Scott, Aine’s friend, received a phone call in which Brown allegedly said, “I will get you next,” the report alleged. 

A judge approved an arrest warrant for Brown on Oct. 25, 1991. He was taken into custody three days later in Wellington, the police report states. He was charged with two counts of intimidating a witness and victim. 

Brown initially pleaded not guilty and a jury trial was scheduled for February of 1992. In pre-trial filings, the Larimer County District Attorney alleged that Brown committed “several incidents of harassment … against the victim over an extended period of time.” 

On Jan. 22, 1992, prosecutors charged Brown with two more felonies — first-degree attempted arson and second-degree burglary of a dwelling, court documents show. The charges, according to an affidavit for an arrest warrant, stemmed from the break-in at Aine’s home. 

About a week later, Brown signed a plea deal. 

In exchange for a guilty plea, the arson and burglary charges were dropped, as was the intimidation charge in relation to Scott. In March, Brown was sentenced to the Colorado Department of Corrections for four years and six months in prison. 

Before the end of 1992, Brown asked the court to reconsider his sentence. 

“At the time of sentencing, Defendant was not committed to change his mental attitudes,” a December 1992 motion for reconsideration of sentence states. “Because of his initial therapy in the Department of Corrections, he has gained insight into the source of his problems in interpersonal relationships. He is now committed to change and continue mental health treatment. The mental health treatment can best be pursued in a community setting.” 

The Larimer County District Attorney opposed Brown’s motion for reconsideration, citing the trauma suffered by the victim as “extreme,” according to court filings. 

The court denied Brown’s request on Jan. 19, 1993. 

“The evidence clearly established that defendant was unable to control his own behavior and prior counseling and programming has not had an impact upon him,” Larimer County District Court Judge William Dressel wrote.

It’s not clear how long Brown ultimately served in prison. A public records request to the Colorado Department of Corrections was not returned by publishing time.

For more information about candidates in Wyoming’s federal, state and legislative races, check out WyoFile’s 2026 Election Guide.