Felony Menacing Charge Dismissed for Lack of Probable Cause After 24 Days in Custody — Here Is What Actually Happened**

**Felony Menacing Charge Dismissed for Lack of Probable Cause After 24 Days in Custody — Here Is What Actually Happened**

My name is John Allan Legette. I am 47 years old, married for 12 years to my wife, Alexandria M. Legette. I hold technical degrees, I've authored seven books with releases scheduled through the start of 2027, and I work as a Hebrew Roots minister and music producer, having produced more than 100 albums and roughly 1,570 tracks of Hebrew Roots music under my ministry's name. I own and operate a music company and a publishing company, both under that same ministry name. My wife and I have never been arrested or charged with a crime in our lives before this. On July 8, 2026, at a hearing in Grand County Court, the prosecutor dismissed the felony menacing charge against both of us, stating on the record that it was being dismissed for lack of probable cause.

**How we ended up in Winter Park**

My wife and I have been on the road since December 11, 2025, traveling across ten states and multiple cities to write, record, and produce Hebrew Roots music and books. We arrived in Winter Park, Colorado as guests at a vacation rental, staying from April 28 to May 29, 2026. During that time we largely stayed in, working on several book manuscripts and Spanish-language translations of my catalog.

Partway through our stay, the rental car we'd driven from Phoenix developed a mechanical problem. We contacted the rental company, told them the car was not safe to drive the roughly 813 miles back to Phoenix, and asked them to retrieve it and provide a replacement vehicle. The company never came. That left us stranded in the area well past our planned departure date, for a total of about 18 days, waiting on a company that did not follow through. Local law enforcement was aware of our situation and our presence in the area during this time.

**The night of June 15**

At around 11 p.m. on June 15, while we were in our vehicle near U.S. Highway 40, a stranger approached the car. He had a large German Shepherd with him. He asked us a question; we did not engage, in part because we didn't know him and it was late at night. He left. Sky-Hi News later reported that Fraser Winter Park Police responded to "a report of felony menacing involving a firearm" in that area around that time. I did not have a firearm, no one in the vehicle had a firearm, and I have no way of independently confirming who made that report or why. I can only tell you what I did and didn't do: I did not display, brandish, or possess a weapon of any kind that night.

Police arrived and conducted what they later described as a high-risk traffic stop. My wife and I stayed in the vehicle with our hands raised. We did not get out immediately. I want to be direct about why: I did not believe I had committed a crime, I did not understand the basis for the commands being given, and in that moment, sitting still with my hands visible seemed safer than making sudden movements during a stop where officers had already indicated they believed a firearm was involved. According to the police department's own account, officers then deployed less-lethal tools before we exited the vehicle and were taken into custody. We were evaluated by Grand County EMS, cleared, and booked into Grand County Jail. I was charged with felony menacing, obstructing a peace officer, and resisting arrest. My wife was charged as well.

The vehicle was towed and searched. No firearm was found. That fact is confirmed in the police department's own June 16 press release, not just in our account of what happened.

**What's resolved, and what isn't**

I was held in custody for 24 days. On July 8, at 10 a.m. in Grand County Court, the prosecutor dismissed the felony menacing charge against us, citing lack of probable cause. I was released the same day.

I assumed that once the underlying menacing allegation collapsed, the related charges would fall with it. That hasn't happened. I still face charges of obstructing a peace officer and resisting arrest. My wife is scheduled to appear in court on July 13 on a charge related to failing to comply with a police order. My own next court dates are August 11 and September 2, 2026. I was offered three separate plea agreements, all of which I've declined because none of them reflected what I believe actually happened that night.

**The gap between the reporting and our experience**

Sky-Hi News's initial coverage described the incident as occupants "barricading themselves in the vehicle" and refusing to exit. From where I sat, my wife and I stayed in the car with our hands raised because we didn't understand why we were being stopped and didn't believe we'd done anything wrong, not because we were refusing to cooperate with a lawful order we understood.

I also want to raise something I can't prove, but that I think is fair to ask openly rather than assert as settled fact: Winter Park is a predominantly white, affluent resort town. In our time there, my wife and I rarely encountered other Black visitors. We've traveled through similar communities before, and we've sometimes felt a passive, unspoken sense of not being welcome. I don't know why the stranger who approached our car that night made the report he apparently made, and I'm not in a position to say what motivated it. But I think it's a fair question to ask why someone with no relationship to us would report us as armed when we weren't, and I'd rather ask it directly than leave it unsaid.

We have no prior criminal record, together or individually, in our entire lives. We've sustained a seven-month, multi-state creative and ministry tour that required real financial stability to carry out. In one month in a town we'd never been in before, we were arrested twice. I'll let readers weigh that against the account the department gave and the account I've given here.