A Summit County judge sentenced Colorado-based influencer David Lesh to two years of probation Tuesday, Feb. 6, on misdemeanor assault charges but declined to impose jail time.

A retired pro skier and the founder of a clothing brand, Lesh is notorious for provocative stunts and social media posts. After a weeklong trial last month, a jury found Lesh guilty of third degree assault, a Class 1 misdemeanor, and guilty of disorderly conduct involving fighting in public, a misdemeanor, but not guilty on a charge of second degree assault by strangulation, a Class 4 felony.

The assault charges stem from a fight between Lesh and another man that occurred during a snowmobiling outing at the Spring Creek trailhead in Summit County on March 25, 2023. During the trial, the prosecution played a video that showed Lesh jumping off his snowmobile at the other man to start the fight.

Before issuing a sentence Tuesday, Judge Karen Romeo noted that she had reviewed character letters written on Lesh’s behalf. Lesh’s attorney, his girlfriend and two friends spoke, describing Lesh as a caring person who deescalates tense encounters.

“This is a case about a long-standing feud between friends,” Romeo said. “… Many years of words exchanged. High emotions. It boiled over on that day. You don’t have a history of violence. I do think this was an isolated incident. But I don’t understand, where was this great guy that day?”

Romeo sentenced Lesh two years of supervised probation and ordered that he complete 100 hours of useful public service, an anger control class and pay $2,000 in restitution to the victim. She granted Lesh permission to travel domestically and internationally while on probation.

Deputy District Attorney Lauren Crisera argued during the hearing that Lesh should be sentenced to 20 days in jail. Crisera noted that the man assaulted by Lesh suffered two black eyes and abrasions to his face. Pointing to Lesh’s social media feed, she said that he has shown a “clear belief that he is above the law.”

“This is an unprovoked attack that was completely unnecessary,” Crisera said.

But Lesh’s defense attorney, Colleen Kelley, noted that Lesh volunteers with charitable organizations and said that the characteristics that define him are “compassion, selflessness, generosity and thoughtfulness.” She added, “This is a person who values and cares for people and animals and the environment and who is a mentor to others.” 

Kelley said that Lesh does not consider himself above the law. She said, “He maintains a public persona” as part of his business, but that persona “should not necessarily be attributed to him as a person.”

Kelley noted that evidence in the trial drew a picture of a long history of disagreements and verbal confrontations between Lesh and the other man involved in the fight. She said that the prosecution mischaracterized the case as being about Lesh’s “ego,” when really it was about him wanting to maintain control of safety in the backcountry.

“If it was provoked or unprovoked is not worth arguing over here,” Kelley said. “But it wasn’t in a vacuum. It didn’t come out of nowhere.”

Kelley said that Lesh did not address the court Tuesday because there is still an opportunity to appeal the case, and he is still deciding whether or not to appeal. She said Lesh regrets his actions.

Given the history of verbal conflict between Lesh and the other man, Romeo said that she doesn’t believe that the assault was “unprovoked,” but she said that Lesh was “definitely the primary and first aggressor.”

Romeo said that Lesh does a lot of good charity work but that she is “bothered” by incidents at Keystone Resort and Hanging Lake that she learned about during the jury selection process. She said that those incidents show a “disregard of the law, whether they’re done for publicity or to promote your business.”

Romeo was apparently referring to when Lesh rode a snowmobile through Keystone Resort’s terrain park while it was closed due to the pandemic in 2020 and photos he posted to social media in 2020, one of which appeared to show him defecating into Hanging Lake.

In the Keystone incident, Lesh was convicted of two petty offenses, trespassing and conducting unauthorized work activity on national forest land, but the latter offense was recently overturned on appeal. Federal prosecutors brought five charges against Lesh for the Hanging Lake photos, but later dropped the charges because they could not verify the authenticity of the photos, which Lesh claimed were doctored.

But Romeo said that she would be “hard pressed” to think of a case where she had sentenced someone to jail time for a first offense of misdemeanor assault. She said jail time would not be appropriate in this case.

“Where was the compassionate David Lesh that day?” Romeo asked. “… That’s what I struggle with. I just ask you to maybe do some reflection on that.”