Aspen Moxie founder jailed in Utah

ASPEN – Legal problems continue to mount for a local man who, as of last week, insisted that his upstart Aspen glossy magazine will hit the stands in December.Salt Lake City police arrested Taylor Scott Colton, 41, Thursday on one misdemeanor charge of threats against life or property. Records from the Utah capital’s jail show that he remained in custody Tuesday on a $100,000 bond for a fugitive-of-justice charge. Colton had been wanted by Aspen police for a July burglary; a warrant was issued for his arrest last week.On Wednesday, Nov. 2, the day before his arrest, Colton contacted The Aspen Times asking it to retract an article from Sept. 22. That article included interviews with local business operators who said that Colton duped them out of thousands of dollars. The money, they said, was to pay for business advertisements in a magazine Colton says will be called Aspen Moxie.But the magazine, which they were told would come out in July, has yet to be printed. In last week’s interview, Colton said Aspen Moxie would be released in December. “I’ve called all of my clients,” he said. “I’m working on it. I’ve got some big bills to pay, but I’m going to pay everybody.”Colton also told the Times that he had not fled to Utah, as Aspen police claimed in the September article. Instead, he said he was in Utah when he flipped a motor home and was hospitalized with serious injuries, hampering his ability to return to Aspen and roll out the publication. “I broke my face, shattered my cheek,” Colton said, noting that he specializes in marketing and used to earn $900,000 a year. “I have an ego, and I didn’t want to come back to Aspen. I look like the Joker right now.”Law-enforcement officials, from Sheriff Joe DiSalvo to Aspen police Officer Rick Magnuson, said Colton contacted them last week as well. Only the cause of his broken face was different: Colton told them he’d been jumped by members of a motorcycle gang.Colton, who also said he had remarried last month – his new wife maintained that Aspen Moxie will run all of its ads for free to those owed money – said the magazine will be edgy and thought-provoking.But for now, legal problems persist.Magnuson said Colton has the choice to sign extradition papers that would allow him to be transported to the Pitkin County Jail. In Aspen he faces charges of burglarizing an apartment. The warrant for that arrest remains under seal because it has yet to be executed on Colton. Police, however, have yet to pursue criminal charges for the alleged magazine scam.”It’s still civil at this point,” said Kirk Wheatley, an Aspen officer investigating the complaints. “I know a lot of victims in this town are a little upset by that, but not all of the victims and businesses want to proceed with it. And it’s really difficult to keep a book on a criminal case unless everyone is on board.”One of the alleged victims, Tanya Baldwin, who owns the floral-design shop Cadeau Aspen and Fig & Lily, a specialty-gourmet foods store in Carbondale, said she paid $500 for ads to run in Aspen Moxie. She also said she paid Colton another $700 for recyclable shopping bags that would tout her businesses with their logos. The bags have yet to be delivered, she said. Baldwin said Colton recently contacted her and said he planned to pay her back.”I told him I wish him the best, and I really don’t know what to expect from him,” Baldwin said.As for Aspen Moxie, Baldwin said Colton told her a different story.”He said there would be no magazine, but he would still print my bags,” she said.Whatever the case, Baldwin said she has learned her lesson.”I certainly am not going to do business with him again,” she said.rcarroll@aspentimes.com