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Silt trustee charged with harrassment

Heidi Rice
Glenwood Springs correspondent
Aspen, CO Colorado
Bobby Hays
ALL |

SILT, Colo. ” As if the town board did not have enough on its plate, a town trustee has been charged with felony harassment and stalking after allegedly following a woman home from a softball field outside of Glenwood Springs.

Bobby Joel Hays, 49, was arrested at 10:26 p.m. on Aug. 9, for following the woman home from a softball game and allegedly blocking the entrance to her home on Ponderosa Drive, according to the Garfield County Sheriff’s Office

“She called 911 and we located his vehicle down the street and contacted him,” said Sheriff Lou Vallario. “He was asked what he was doing there and he said he was just driving around.”



Hays has been a town trustee in Silt since April 2006.

Vallario said the report indicated that the woman said Hays has been stalking her since 2000.




“She’s afraid for her life and she has made previous reports (to police) in 2002,” Vallario said. “She’s scared of him.”

Vallario also said an eyewitness said he’d heard the woman pleading with Hays to stop following her.

“Apparently, she’s tried to get a restraining order against him before and was denied,” Vallario said. “But she has documentation of him following her.”

There are no indications in the report as to what relationship, if any, exists between Hays and the woman.

Hays did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

The incident comes just shortly after numerous troubles in Silt town government, including the loss of its police chief, town administrator, town treasurer and community development director, along with the resignation of a town trustee and a current recall effort aimed at the town’s mayor.

The town staff positions recently have been filled. A vacancy still remains on the town board and a recall petition for the mayor has yet to be turned in.

Hays was arrested and booked into the Garfield County Jail; he posted a $5,000 bond and was released the next day. He is scheduled to appear in district court at 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 29.