Jury convicts man for threatening secretary of state

Griswold testifies

BY SANDRA FISH THE COLORADO SUN

A Denver jury has convicted a 52-year-old man of retaliating against an elected o cial for threatening Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold in a phone call to the Democrat’s o ce.

Kirk Wertz told Colorado State Patrol troopers investigating the threat that he called the Elections Division of the Colorado Secretary of State’s O ce on June 30, two days after the 2022 primary, and told a worker to “tell the secretary that the angel of death is coming for her in the name of Jesus Christ.”

Wertz has been held in the Denver Downtown Detention Center since July 6 on a $2,000 bond, jail records show. At one point, a mental health stay was instituted in the case and later lifted, court records indicate.

Authorities traced the cellphone from which the call came and saw that it was moving from Kansas toward