By: Anita Springsteen, Esq.
Owner of Springsteen Law Firm, LLC www.springsteenlawfirm.com
Former Lakewood City Councilor for Ward 3

This op-ed is to express my serious concerns with Rebekah Stewart running for Colorado State Representative in House District 30. Perhaps the better word is fear, as I believe this candidate to be dangerous to civil rights. I speak from experience because I served on Lakewood City Council with her from 2021 to 2023, where we both represented Ward 3, and I witnessed such callousness that it chills me to the bone.
Rebekah did some things that I believe are not only counter to a free society – but downright villainous. Strangely enough, I do not believe that Rebekah and I have vastly different political views, but that made the things she did to hurt like-minded people even more ominous and baffling. She behaved as if I were the enemy before she even met me. It did not seem to be about jockeying for a political position or issue. It seemed more about crushing whomever she considered an “outsider”, either because she was told to, or because she is just mean. Either way, that is a disturbing motivation in an elected official.
Most disturbing – I believe Rebekah is one of the main people responsible for sending a progressive activist and native of Green Mountain in Lakewood named Desiree Gonzalez to jail for over a year for exercising free speech – a freedom that Rebekah seems to despise and equates with being crazy. Desiree (who had no prior criminal record) had been very effective at pointing out the lack of transparency and apparent corruption in how the City of Lakewood is run. And people like Rebekah could not abide such criticism.

Above – Desiree Gonzalez – Star Softball Player for Alameda Green Mountain in Lakewood, undefeated regional champions, circa 1990.

So Rebekah joined in what I describe as a witch hunt, just as sure as if we were in Salem in 1692.

Desiree was accused by a couple of members of Lakewood City Council of threatening them by email in December 2022. However, four of ten council members (40%) felt the communications were NOT threats, that words were taken out of context, and that they were not “victims” – and expressed this to the District Attorney and the Court.¹ But the accusers are good buddies with District Attorney Alexis King. And the prosecution has persisted to this day – currently set for an April 2024 trial.
Desiree’s life was turned upside down and her freedom taken. The house where she lives with elderly parents was descended upon and torn apart by SWAT twice. She was kept in jail on a $250,000.00 CASH ONLY bond for over a year. Due to medical problems and lack of medical care she nearly lost her life in the Jefferson County Jail on many occasions, missed a year supporting a father diagnosed with dementia, missed a year with her grandma who died, missed a mammogram – and is currently undergoing a biopsy as a result. In effect – Rebekah and her cronies may have cost Desiree her life.

Above – Desiree Gonzalez with her late grandmother in better times.

Also disturbing – the witch hunt extended to me, I assume because Desiree and I took up similar causes as civil rights activists. I believe that Rebekah inexplicably wanted to send me – her colleague on Council – to jail along with Desiree. Not because I broke any laws. Just because she doesn’t like me. I discovered this when I saw the Supplemental Report by the First Judicial District Attorney’s Office from an interview taken on 2/27/23. Rebekah wildly speculated: “She believes that Councilwoman Anita Springsteen in particular took advantage of defendant’s mental health. Stewart said that based upon her own observations, perceptions and conclusions she has drawn, she has deducted that Springsteen seeks out individuals such as the defendant to attack city council. Stewart believes that Springsteen would feed information and conspiracy theories to the defendant for the defendant to act upon. Stewart said that she is a therapist and saw this dynamic.”
Somehow in Rebekah’s mind, I am capable of using Jedi mind tricks on my constituents. And am responsible for anything that they do or say. These statements are both outlandish, and cruel. Who is the crazy one here?
Rebekah has no qualifications to diagnose mental health issues, and Desiree has been repeatedly found competent during the proceedings.
Beyond that, Desiree did not get one minute of mental health care in that jail. Rebekah painting a picture of Desiree being a mental case is defamatory and is a weapon used all too often in today’s

political climate. We know this because Rebekah seems to paint anyone who is not in what I describe as her “Mean Girls” club, whose opinions she does not like, as crazy and militant.
After a recent February Lakewood Council meeting, in which concerned citizens filled Council chambers, Rebekah wrote, “Despite extremist attempts to bully and intimidate us out of investing in this critical resource, I stood up with my colleagues for our community and shared values.”
Extremists she called them! Primarily senior citizens who came to express concern on a topic important to the entire state. While I might not agree with everything those citizens came to say at that meeting – I would fight for their right to say it. They do not deserve to be called names, be marginalized or be put in harm’s way for having a different opinion. Who is the real extremist and bully? And how can someone so small minded represent us all?
Rebekah calling hundreds of senior citizens “extremists” takes all the credibility away from her accusations of Desiree.
It is my opinion that Rebekah’s attacks on me, a colleague, were either an indication of severe instability, deep insecurity, or cutthroat malice. It should serve as a warning to anyone who serves with Rebekah or speaks about her. Even if you think you agree with her, she may hate you nevertheless. And if she hates you, it seems anything goes. Be warned.
It was very sobering to think that Rebekah included me – an innocent single mom, an attorney, an Officer of the Court – in the witch hunt. And she appeared to have no concerns about my dependent children with her outlandish accusations. Maybe that’s because she doesn’t yet have the life experience to know what it means to be a mom.
It should be noted that both Desiree and I are Latinas. And Rebekah is white. And I believe Rebekah would never have developed these conspiracy theories about white women. For all of her lip service to caring about inclusivity, I never saw any evidence of Rebekah actually acting on any of that. To the contrary. In my opinion, she treats Women Of Color as if they are second class citizens. Desiree is a native of Lakewood who endured years of prejudice for being Hispanic. Rebekah is new to this area, and frankly has no understanding of the history of this kind of oppression right here in Lakewood.
I believe Rebekah’s real motivation about Desiree came out at the end of her statement to the District Attorney: “Stewart would like for the defendant to get mental health treatment and a condition that prevents her from access to tools, like social media, that cause her to spiral given her mental health matters. Stewart feels that if she is allowed access, this will happen again by the defendant.”
Take a moment to take that in. Rebekah is a woman who wants to be elected to serve an entire House District in Colorado. And yet, she believes that people should be kept from having access to social media and from being able to speak. She is apparently willing to put people in jail for over a year and put their lives in jeopardy in order to prevent them from criticizing her or those around her. In some countries, they call that totalitarianism.

We cannot keep electing people to office who want to take us back to the Dark Ages or who act like fascists. We need people with scruples, not wolves in sheep’s clothing (don’t let Rebekah’s constant schoolgirl giggling fool you).
There are many other things I could have touched on here. It is my opinion that Rebekah utterly failed her constituents who have been trying to save Belmar Park from developers, that Rebekah was elected with dark money by Big Money interests, that Rebekah failed to ever vote with me on progressive issues like police accountability and equity, that Rebekah failed to demand affordable housing or environmental protections. I do not think she practices what she preaches.
But the most important part of this story to me is the fact that Rebekah participated in putting a Hispanic progressive activist in the cesspool they call a jail in Jefferson County for an entire year without any apparent remorse. That’s beyond Big Brother. That’s cruelty, in my humble opinion.
Do not vote for Rebekah Stewart for State House District 30. It is not a good choice for our state or our district.

¹ Desiree did not threaten to hurt anyone. By contrast, Jeromie Rose allegedly threatened in voicemails in 2023 to shoot Governor Polis in the head and to beat up an Adams County prosecutor and was immediately released on a $3000 bond. He was sentenced to probation. Michael James Kennedy allegedly threatened to shoot Congressman Neguse in the head with an AK-47. He also allegedly threatened Rep. Diana DeGette, Mayor Hancock, and Governor Polis and made racist comments. He received a $50,000 cash or surety bond and a sentence to 90 days in jail and probation. Travis Chaudoir, who also threatened Neguse, allegedly made hundreds of calls threatening the Congressman and his staff. He had a $50,000 cash or surety bond and eventually received a sentence to 10 days in jail and probation. The police officer who killed George Floyd had a $100,000 cash or surety bond. All of these men had cash or surety bonds, meaning they could be released by posting only 10% of the total bond. Desiree had to post the entire $250,000 – cash only- to get out of jail. So she sat in jail for over a year. Also strange – there has been NOTHING about this in the news, where every other case of alleged threats has been covered by multiple news outlets. What is happening in Jeffco?