Top Colorado Republican leader reports death threats

Hope Scheppelman, who was elected vice chair of the Colorado Republican Party in August 2023, has received death threats and other forms of harassment by phone starting in late July, Scheppelman reported to the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office.

The harassing calls began July 22 and continued periodically until at least until Aug. 10, according to what Scheppelman told a sheriff’s deputy on Aug. 12. The deputy documented information from Scheppelman in an incident report obtained by Newsline.

“Threats have been made against Hope’s life and her husband’s life,” the report says. “Initially, the harassing phone calls were name calling and telling Hope to jump off a bridge.”

A caller at one point “began to identify things on Hope’s property.” Scheppelman, a Bayfield resident, told the deputy she tracked the phone number of one of the calls to Miami.

Scheppelman said that the calls came from two different people named Betsy and that one was named Betsy Freedom, according to the report.

The La Plata deputy reported that an attempt to tie the source of the harassment to a Durango resident, who has a name that’s similar to the other Betsy who Scheppelman identified, did not lead to a suspect.

Scheppelman told Newsline on Friday that “there is an investigation going on” related to Betsy Freedom.

“My life has been threatened and my family’s life has been threatened by this individual,” Scheppelman said. She declined to speak further about the matter, citing the investigation.

Scheppelman is embroiled in a leadership dispute with s0me members of the Colorado Republican Party. A vote by the party’s central committee Saturday ousted her from leadership — along with the chair, former state Rep. Dave Williams, and secretary, Anna Ferguson — and installed new leaders. The two factions both say they’re the legitimate leaders of the party, and the results of a lawsuit over the opposing claims, as well as guidance from the Republican National Committee, is expected to settle the matter.

The actual identity of Betsy Freedom has been a recent topic of speculation among Scheppelman opponents. A Betsy Freedom from Pueblo on Facebook, whose political interests appear to align with Scheppelman’s, in a recent post used first-person language to describe performing the duties of the vice chair of the Colorado GOP.

Scheppelman posted on Facebook that Freedom “impersonated” her.

Newsline sent Betsy Freedom a message on Facebook but had not received a response by the time of publication. No Betsy Freedom is registered to vote in Colorado, and a Betsy Freedom in Pueblo did not emerge in a search of other public records.

Colorado Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com. Follow Colorado Newsline on Facebook and X.