Disturbing the Peace in Colorado: Charges, Penalties, and Record Sealing

Colorado has no law called “disturbing the peace.” The conduct people use that phrase for — loud parties, public fights, screaming matches, firing a gun into the air — is prosecuted under the state’s disorderly conduct statute, Colorado Revised Statutes § 18-9-106. Most violations are petty offenses with a maximum $300 fine and up to 10 days in jail. Firearm-related conduct is treated far more seriously and can carry up to a year behind bars.

What Behavior Gets You Charged

The statute covers five categories. You commit the offense by intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly:

Making unreasonable noise in a public place or near a private residence you have no right to occupy.
Using offensive language or gestures in public in a way that tends to provoke an immediate violent reaction — what courts call “fighting words.”
Fighting with another person in public, outside an organized athletic contest.
Firing a gun in a public place, unless you’re lawfully hunting, at target practice, or firing blanks as part of a military funeral salute.
Displaying a real or fake firearm in public in a way meant to alarm someone, where it does alarm them. Falsely claiming to be armed counts too.

The mental-state piece matters. Prosecutors have to show you acted intentionally, knowingly, or at least recklessly, meaning you were aware the conduct could cause a disturbance and did it anyway. Being accidentally loud at a gathering, with no awareness that anyone was bothered, does not fit the statute on its own.¹

What the Penalty Will Actually Be

Penalties fall into three tiers based on which category of conduct you were charged with. The spread between the lowest and highest is wide.

Petty Offenses

Unreasonable noise, offensive language or gestures, and public fighting are petty offenses, the least serious criminal classification in Colorado. The maximum penalty is a $300 fine and up to 10 days in county jail.² First-time noise or minor-scuffle cases often resolve with a fine and no jail.

Class 2 Misdemeanor

Two situations push the charge up. One is displaying a real or simulated firearm, or falsely claiming to be armed, in a way meant to alarm someone. The other is committing any of the petty-level acts with the intent to disrupt a funeral or cause severe emotional distress to mourners.¹ A Class 2 misdemeanor carries up to 120 days in jail and a fine of up to $750.³

Class 1 Misdemeanor

Unlawfully discharging a firearm in a public place is the most serious form of the offense and sits at the top of the misdemeanor scale.¹ The maximum is 364 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.³ It stays a misdemeanor on paper, but the exposure is close to a year.

The Real Number Is Higher

Those fines are the base. Colorado adds mandatory surcharges to every criminal conviction, including a court cost assessment and a victim compensation fee, which can add well over $100 to a misdemeanor total. Defense attorneys typically charge flat fees starting around $1,000 and running up from there for minor disorderly conduct cases. A petty-offense conviction ends up considerably more expensive than the $300 cap suggests.

When Cursing or Yelling Is Protected Speech

The “offensive language” prong of the statute runs up against the First Amendment, and the constitutional limits often decide these cases. The First Amendment protects almost all speech, including speech that is rude, vulgar, or offensive. The narrow exception is fighting words: language aimed at a specific person that amounts to a personal insult extreme enough to provoke an immediate violent response.

The U.S. Supreme Court created that exception in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942), describing fighting words as those that “by their very utterance, inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.” Later decisions narrowed it. In Texas v. Johnson (1989), the Court tightened the category to a “direct personal insult or an invitation to exchange fisticuffs.” Speech that merely upsets or angers people stays protected.

In practice, cursing at someone — including cursing at a police officer — is not enough on its own to sustain a disorderly conduct charge under this prong. The words have to be directed at a specific individual and amount to the kind of direct personal provocation likely to trigger an immediate fight. A profane rant in a public park, with no specific target, usually falls on the protected side of the line. If you are charged under this part of the statute, the constitutional defense is often the strongest argument available.

City Noise Rules vs. the State Charge

The state statute uses a subjective standard (“unreasonable noise”) without defining how loud is too loud. Many Colorado cities and counties fill that gap with local noise ordinances that set measurable limits — specific decibel thresholds that vary by zone and time of day, with lower limits in residential areas and at night. Some ordinances measure sound at a fixed distance from the property line so officers have an objective reading rather than relying on complaints alone.

The practical difference matters. A local noise violation is usually civil. You get a citation and pay a fine, but it does not create a criminal record the way a state disorderly conduct conviction does. The same conduct can violate both at once, though. A 2 a.m. house party that generates enough complaints can draw a municipal noise citation and a state disorderly conduct charge together.

Getting the Conviction Off Your Record

A disorderly conduct conviction does not have to stay with you forever. Colorado lets you petition the court to seal the record after a waiting period that depends on severity:

Petty offenses: one year after final disposition or release from supervision, whichever is later.
Class 2 misdemeanors: two years after final disposition or release from supervision.
Class 1 misdemeanors: three years after final disposition or release from supervision.

For petty offenses, sealing is close to automatic. Once you file the motion and submit a verified copy of your criminal history showing no new convictions since the case closed, the court must grant the order.⁴ For misdemeanors, the district attorney is notified and can object, so the outcome involves more discretion.

A few rules apply at every level. Any court-ordered restitution must be paid in full, or the restitution order must have been vacated. The filing fee is $65, and you can ask the court to waive it. You also have to obtain and submit a verified copy of your criminal history, which costs extra.⁴ Sealing does not erase the record — law enforcement and certain government agencies can still see it. For employment background checks and housing applications, though, a sealed record generally will not show up, which is the result most people are after.