{"id":129026,"date":"2026-05-14T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-man-found-guilty-in-2025-menacing-case\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T08:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T14:30:00","slug":"cortez-man-found-guilty-in-2025-menacing-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-man-found-guilty-in-2025-menacing-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez man found guilty in 2025 menacing case"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Shane
Shane French, who was recently found guilty by a jury for a 2025 menacing case, is scheduled to have his sentencing hearing on May 29.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A jury in the U.S. 22nd Judicial District found a Cortez resident guilty in a menacing case that resulted after a confrontation with police in May 2025.<\/p>\n

Shane French was found guilty on six counts of menacing involving a real or simulated weapon, plus charges of obstruction of government operations, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct for displaying a weapon in public. His sentencing is scheduled for Friday, May 29 at 9 a.m.<\/p>\n

French was arrested in May 2025 on suspicion of menacing with a deadly weapon and assault on a peace officer after a confrontation with police.<\/p>\n

At a hearing last year, Cortez Police Department Officer Koltan Guttridge testified that he, Sgt. Brent Jarmon and Officer Kadan Sharp responded to a disturbance call made by French\u2019s mother from her Texas Street residence. According to Guttridge\u2019s testimony and an incident report obtained by The Journal<\/em>, French left the home and confronted officers on Empire Street, yelling and armed with a knife. He dropped the knife before holding up an object that resembled a firearm.<\/p>\n

\"Shane
Shane French.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Three of the menacing counts involved the knife and three involved the simulated firearm, District Attorney Jeremy Reed told The Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Body camera footage from the three officers captured officers\u2019 commands for French to drop the knife and their efforts to de-escalate the situation. Police later obtained a warrant and entered the home after French had gone back inside. There, he allegedly blocked their entry and struggled with them.<\/p>\n

A search of the home turned up a pipe with suspected methamphetamine residue and a gun-shaped lighter. Additional drug paraphernalia was located during a hospital evaluation and further search.<\/p>\n

French has a prior conviction from 2020 for threatening a parole officer with a weapon. That conviction was reversed after the Colorado Court of Appeals requested that a new trial be held after claims that French acted in self-defense against who he allegedly thought was a trespasser. In 2014, he was acquitted by a jury on assault and resisting arrest charges.<\/p>\n

French and his family later settled a 2016 lawsuit against the city of Cortez and several police officers over claims of illegal entry into their home.<\/p>\n

bduran@the-journal.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sentencing is scheduled for the end of May<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":129027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6273],"tags":[21,168,28,60,29,51,6419,76],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-129026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-courts-and-crime","tag-cortez","tag-crime","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-police","tag-tj-trueanthem","tag-u-s-22nd-judicial-district"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129026"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=129026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}