The first words a young Ryan Hess remembers reading came out of a 1973 version of Colorado Revised Statute.
Hess, whose father was a police officer in the town of Ouray in the 70s, had a copy of the Colorado Revised Statute in his truck at all times, thanks to a small gift from a local judge.
“All I remember is that I saw it as my Dad’s cop book and it was really, really cool to me,” Hess said from inside his office at the Moffat County Public Safety Center. “So I would grab it from time to time and would try to read it when I was a really little kid, so I’ve been reading Colorado law since I was probably 3 years old.”