THENEWYORKER,JANUARY18, 2021 23
‘Let David know we’re out to get him.’”)
The judge said, “It isn’t clear to the
point of probable cause when the pic-
ture that supposedly purports to show
Mr. Lesh pooping in Maroon Lake was
taken.” The Forest Service’s forensic in-
vestigation had determined, for exam-
ple, that the lake’s water level in the photo
was higher than it had been this fall.
The prosecutor said, “The mere post-
ing of the photograph shows the de-
fendant’s intent to flout the orders of
this court.”
The judge seemed to agree. He said
that he was banning Lesh from setting
foot on federally owned land—“to pro-
tect the land not only from Mr. Lesh’s
direct actions but also from the influence
that Mr. Lesh clearly has by posting
these in the messages.”
Furthermore, the judge ordered Lesh
not to post, “or cause to be posted, on
any kind of social-media platform” (he
named a dozen), anything depicting him
violating any laws anywhere on feder-
ally owned land. That’s a lot of land.
The ruling in effect forbade Lesh to ski
and snowmobile—just about every ski
area and backcountry slope in the state
of Colorado is on federal turf—and
therefore, in his view, to market his com-
pany and make a living. And, perhaps
worst of all, it prevented him from con-
tinuing to play the role, online, of envi-
ronmental outlaw. The judge asked if
he understood the terms.
Lesh began to speak. “Your Honor,
um, yeah, the post of the defecating in
Maroon Lake, um, I—”
Lesh’s soon-to-be-former attorney
spoke up: “Mr. Lesh. Your Honor, I’m
advising David Lesh to refrain from
talking about that. These issues can be
dealt with through counsel, but, Mr.
David Lesh, please don’t get into those
matters right now.”
“O.K., I won’t get into the details of
that image, but I do feel like—”
“Mr. Lesh! Mr. Lesh!”
“Please allow me to talk!”
“No, sir. David Lesh, please stop
talking. Your Honor, would the court
note my client is speaking over my ad-
vice and I’m advising David Lesh not
to speak, not to say anything? His mat-
ters will be respected and addressed
through counsel.”
“Your Honor, I would like to be able
to talk.”
The judge said, “Stop talking for a
moment. Your attorney is giving you
frankly very good advice.”
Lesh asked for a continuance, so he
could find new counsel.
“That request is denied,” the judge
said.T
hat night, the night before Hal-
loween, Lesh and a woman he was
seeing, along with Anderson and an-
other acquaintance, a solar-power en-
trepreneur from the eastern part of the
state, went out for sushi, indoors, at a
restaurant downtown. The election was
a few days away. “I’m not going to vote,”
Lesh said. “I think both candidates are
garbage. If I were voting for my per-
sonal interests, it would be Trump, but
I can’t.” The others were leaning toward
Trump, though they were entertaining
the idea of casting their ballots for Kanye
West, who’d recently taken up residence
in the Rockies, in Jackson Hole. They
were all certain that Trump was going
to win in a landslide. Afterward, they
headed off to visit a haunted house,
something called the Thirteenth Floor.
Lesh had bought me a ticket, but, wary
of Covid and weary of the company, I
begged off.
A few weeks later, he released the
video revealing his Photoshop handi-
work. It begins with an overhead shot
of him in bed, working on a laptop, sur-
rounded by naked women. In the com-
ments, his fans cheered him on for stick-
ing it to the do-gooders and the snitches:“SAVAGE!!!!” “Absolute troll god.” On
Cyber Monday, Virtika had its biggest
day ever of sales. Lesh’s new lawyer, in
a bid for a modification of the judge’s
terms, filed a motion detailing the Pho-
toshopping scheme. (“The Maroon Lake
Post is inauthentic. Mr. Lesh has never
been to Maroon Lake.”) The judge even-
tually denied the motion. Meanwhile,
on an early-season snowmobiling trip,
Lesh wrecked his BMW. Then one of
his tenants burned down an R.V., also
torching a shipping container where
Lesh had stored most of his keepsakes,
personal effects, and tools. Lesh posted
a photo of the rubble and wrote, “I think
being raised in India by hippie, artist,
musician parents helps minimize at-
tachment to possessions.”
I talked to a lawyer in Colorado who
is familiar with the case. He said, “I can
tell you exactly what is going to happen
to David Lesh. He is going to keep up
these shenanigans. He’s going to go to
trial. He’s going to insist on testifying,
over the advice of his attorney. It’s a
petty offense, but the judge will be
sufficiently annoyed by him that he will
give him two years’ probation, just
enough to give David the room to step
on his dick. He’ll have to meet with a
probation officer once a month. They’ll
UA him—urinalysis. Or they’ll get him
for something. And that’s how David
will be the first guy I’ve ever heard of
to serve Bureau of Prisons time on a
petty offense.” Perhaps that, too, would
be good for business.