This timeline tracks the Wilburn v. Guthrie sequence from the October 2023 D20 candidate forum through the May 2026 cert-stage reply, preserving uncertainty where the appellate materials describe background events only in relative terms.
This page covers only the sequence grounded in the legal materials now in the repository and the immediately relevant D20 summary context. It does not attempt to reconstruct every school-board or social-media exchange discussed in commentary sources.
- Derrick Wilburn participates in an Academy District 20 candidate forum and reads explicit passages from books while arguing against their availability in school libraries.
- Why it matters: the appellate materials treat this forum event as the factual core of the later dispute.
- Source basis: Wilburn v. Guthrie anti-SLAPP appeal and cert petition
- Wilburn is elected to the school board, and shortly afterward Guthrie speaks at a school-board meeting about the forum incident; the two later give conflicting accounts of a verbal altercation outside.
- Why it matters: the legal dispute expands from forum speech into a second set of accusations about harassment and intimidation.
- Source basis: Wilburn v. Guthrie anti-SLAPP appeal and cert petition
- According to Guthrie's opening brief and Wilburn's answer brief, Colorado Springs police inform Guthrie there is no evidence that Wilburn committed the crimes she alleged in connection with either the forum or the later parking-lot incident.
- Why it matters: later accusations and litigation unfold after law enforcement has already declined to substantiate those criminal allegations.
- Source basis: Wilburn v. Guthrie anti-SLAPP appeal and cert petition
- The Court of Appeals opinion says that four months after the forum, a parent group submits a petition to the district attorney requesting investigation of Wilburn's conduct, and Guthrie writes a support letter and contacts the Colorado Association of School Boards.
- Why it matters: the dispute moves from police reporting and public comment into a more organized pressure campaign.
- Source basis: Wilburn v. Guthrie anti-SLAPP appeal and cert petition
- The district court denies the anti-SLAPP motion, and Guthrie appeals that denial the same day.
- Why it matters: Colorado's anti-SLAPP statute allows immediate appeal from a denied special motion to dismiss, producing the appellate record now in the repository.
- Source basis: Wilburn v. Guthrie anti-SLAPP appeal and cert petition
- Guthrie files the opening brief in the Colorado Court of Appeals.
- Why it matters: the appeal is framed around the anti-SLAPP second-step standard, fact-versus-opinion analysis, material falsity, and the outrageous-conduct claim.
- Source basis: Wilburn v. Guthrie anti-SLAPP appeal and cert petition
- Wilburn files the answer brief.
- Why it matters: the appellee response emphasizes reputational harm, repeated criminal accusations, and the district court's application of then-binding anti-SLAPP precedent.
- Source basis: Wilburn v. Guthrie anti-SLAPP appeal and cert petition
- The Colorado Court of Appeals issues
2026COA13, affirms denial of the anti-SLAPP motion, and remands with directions to narrow the case in light of which statements are protected opinion.
- Why it matters: the opinion is the repository's clearest legal articulation of why some accusations can proceed while others cannot.
- Source basis: Wilburn v. Guthrie anti-SLAPP appeal and cert petition
- Guthrie files a Colorado Supreme Court petition for writ of certiorari and a separate appendix.
- Why it matters: the dispute remains active and is explicitly framed as a case about Colorado anti-SLAPP procedure and the disclosed-facts opinion rule, not only a local D20 controversy.
- Source basis: Wilburn v. Guthrie anti-SLAPP appeal and cert petition
- Guthrie files a reply in support of the cert petition in Colorado Supreme Court case
26SC190.
- Why it matters: the cert-stage record now includes Guthrie's response to Wilburn's opposition, with Guthrie emphasizing that the published Court of Appeals opinion now controls a recurring disclosed-facts opinion question and that the anti-SLAPP second-prong dispute warrants review.
- Source basis: Wilburn v. Guthrie anti-SLAPP appeal and cert petition
- The October 2023 forum creates the factual event on which later accusations are built.
- The December 2023 police response matters because the later accusations continue after investigators decline to substantiate criminal conduct.
- The April 2025 anti-SLAPP denial converts the dispute into an immediate appealable case.
- The March 2026 court-of-appeals opinion is the key doctrinal turning point because it narrows the actionable statements instead of ending the case outright.
- The May 2026 reply sharpens the Colorado Supreme Court review posture but does not itself show whether review was granted or denied.
- The current repository does not show whether the Colorado Supreme Court granted or denied certiorari.
- The opinion describes some background events in relative terms rather than providing every exact filing or communication date, so the early-2024 petition sequence remains less precise than the later court filings.
- The repository still lacks the full district-court complaint and order text as standalone durable summaries, so this page relies on the appellate materials' account of the pleadings and trial-court ruling.