CRIPPLE CREEK • David Lane, a Denver criminal and civil rights lawyer known for successfully defending high-profile clients, is representing on a pro bono basis a Woodland Park School District RE-2 parent facing several charges during an unusual altercation that occurred in July at a local Safeway.

“It was suggested, and he agreed to help me,” Samantha Peck told The Gazette Monday, following her preliminary hearing at the 4th Judicial District courthouse in Cripple Creek.

“He’s the best at what he does,” Peck said.

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Lane, whose previous cases have included the 2009 academic freedom decision in favor of former University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill, appeared at the hearing online via video conferencing, while Peck addressed the court in person.

Judge Scott Sells advised Peck of the charges: two counts of attempting to influence a public servant, classified as misdemeanors, and one count of false reporting of an emergency, a felony.

Peck also was informed about a mandatory protection in place for the alleged victim, Katie Illingworth.

She’s an Air Force attorney and legal advisor, who’s married to 4th Judicial District Deputy Attorney David Illingworth II, one of three RE-2 school board members named in a recall effort.

Petitioners want to oust Illingworth, the board’s vice president, along with member Suzanne Patterson and President David Rusterholtz, who were elected in November under a conservative slate. Decisions made at meetings in recent months have drawn outcry from the local teachers’ association members and some parents, who objected to a new charter school moving in to a portion of the middle school and other changes.

Recall supporters are accusing the three members of breaching open meetings laws, lacking transparency, following special interests and attempting to silence the local teachers’ union as reasons voters should unseat them.

Petitioners met the Aug. 1 deadline to turn in signatures to the Teller County Clerk and Recorder’s Office; officials have until Aug. 29 to determine whether there are enough signatures from eligible voters to place recall questions on an upcoming ballot, Stephanie Kees, chief deputy clerk and recorder, said Monday.

“But we are close to completion,” she said.

Teller County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Peck on Aug. 2, following a July 24 incident at the city’s Safeway store, where petitioners were collecting signatures.

Peck, who works as a client executive for an insurance company, was accompanying recall co-sponsor Erin O’Connell to check on circulators, O’Connell told The Pikes Peak Courier, a sister publication to The Gazette, last month.

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In a 911 call made at 8:38 p.m. July 24, Peck states that she wanted to report a potential drunk driver, a woman slurring her words and who had a daughter with her. Peck said the woman had approached petition volunteers and “started repeating herself, slurring her words, her eyes were twitching back and forth.”

Peck later said the woman was being combative, and she couldn’t figure out how to check herself out inside the grocery store.

Woodland Park police said in an arrest affidavit neither responding officers nor store employees thought the woman was intoxicated. The woman’s name was removed from the arrest paperwork, but her identity was made known in a news release police issued Aug. 4.

“Ms. Peck relayed that she was concerned because the suspected drunk driver/victim, personally known to her as the wife of the vice president of the Woodland Park RE-2 School District, was attempting to drive away with a young child in her vehicle,” the release said.

When officers arrived at the Safeway parking lot about six minutes later, according to police records, they contacted Illingworth in her vehicle and “did not notice any children, nor did they detect any influence of any alcoholic beverage or impairment of any kind,” the affidavit says.

Illingworth told police she hadn’t been drinking alcohol and that she saw a woman in the Safeway store who is involved in the recall effort, someone who “really doesn’t like us,” and “she isn’t a fan of our family.”

An investigation did not substantiate any of the claims Peck made, police said.

Lane said he was interested in defending Peck because “there are implications involved with petitioning rights” and that he’s “investigating as to whether this is simply payback for her petition or there’s an actual crime that’s committed here.”

Also concerning is that Peck was arrested at midnight at her Divide home, Lane said.

“You don’t show up at somebody’s house at midnight for a nonviolent crime,” he said. “That’s not how warrants are supposed to go; most warrants you don’t execute after dark.”

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Peck declined to say anything about the case on Monday, except that she’s “excited to see my story come out and shed light on what’s happening in this area.”

After her arrest, Peck posted her booking mugshot to Facebook in a montage with photos of civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Rosa Parks.

“I stand on the shoulders of giants,” Peck wrote. “I will share my photo, because these things happen to many people courageous enough to stand up against oppression. I am not alone.”

A group of people accompanied Peck to Monday’s hearing, including at least one candidate who ran against board members who are the subject of the recall.

Peck’s arraignment is set for 10:30 a.m. Oct. 17.