Courtesy of Ian Bramlett
Audio By Carbonatix
A House of Pots, a much-loved plants-and-pottery specialist located at 1620 West 74th Way, is having a big sale right now for a very unusual reason. Spouses and co-owners Ian Bramlett and Isamira Boyington have been cited for contempt in Adams County Court over a years-long dispute involving outside storage of merchandise. The pair is already on the hook for a hefty fine, and if their alleged wrongs aren’t corrected by the middle of next month, both of them will be incarcerated.
Really.
Bramlett is in remarkably good spirits for someone under threat of an indefinite stay in the hoosegow. He jokes about being “the bad boy of pots” and admits to having fantasized about letting Adams County authorities hurl him behind bars as a way of highlighting the situation’s absurdity. “There’s no scenario of going to jail for the publicity,” he stresses, particularly due to the burden it would put on Boyington, who he describes as a “silent partner” in the business, and their two kids, ages ten and seven. “But it’s such a circus anyway that it makes you think, ‘Why not?'”
An Adams County spokesperson declined to comment on the matter beyond providing a copy of an April 15 document entitled “Order for the Imposition of Remedial Contempt Sanctions.” Adams County Judge Joshua Nowak writes: “On February 5, 2026, the Court held a hearing on Plaintiff’s, Board of County Commissioners of Adams County, Motion for Citation for Contempt of Court. At the conclusion of the hearing, the Court found Defendants in contempt of court. The Court ordered Defendants to purge the contempt by March 1, 2026. If the contempt was not purged by that time, the Court advised Defendants a remedial sanction of $100 per day would be assessed until the contempt was purged.”
Nowak adds: “The Court set the matter for review for today’s date. The Court heard testimony and received exhibits during today’s hearing including Defendants’ admission that the contempt remains and exhibits which appear to show Defendants are restocking the prohibited outdoor storage. After reviewing the evidence presented, the Court finds Defendants have not purged the contempt and are in flagrant violation of the Court’s Order. Additionally, the Court specifically finds that Defendants have the present ability to comply with the Court’s Order.” Hence, Bramlett and Boyington were ordered to “pay $100 per day for 44 days from March 1, 2026 through April 13, 2026, totaling $4,400” and determined that “Defendants shall be remanded to the custody of the Adams County Sheriff’s Office on May 18, 2026 at 11:00 a.m.” unless “the contempt is purged.”
The version of events offered by Bramlett is considerably more detailed, not to mention head-slappingly weird.
When Bramlett launched A House of Pots in May 2020, he concedes that “I was not aware outdoor storage would ever be a problem. And for the first seven months or something of being in violation, I was confused, because they cited ‘junk and debris.’ I made sure to clean my property to be spic and span. But then it was revealed that they were talking about the inventory.”
He subsequently learned that “having merchandise in a fenced area on a commercial property is prohibited in Adams County. So this was a zoning-code enforcement issue, and from the very beginning, they made it very clear to me that I was to bring all my items inside every night, like a tire shop.”
The sheer number of his items made complying impossible, he concluded: “I had 400,000 pounds of inventory, and 160,000 pounds of it was more than ten feet off the ground, sitting on pallet racks.”
Courtesy of Ian Bramlett
In an attempt to find a solution that didn’t involve hauling literal tons of pots and plants inside and outside on a daily basis, Bramlett says he negotiated with Jonathan Lubrano, then an assistant city attorney in Adams County. Together, they came up with what Bramlett characterizes as a “pretty flexible settlement agreement,” albeit an unusual one, in that it involved Adams County suing him. In October 2023, he explains, “I agreed to remove everything or be subject to daily fines up to $100 a day if I was in default, but as long as I was taking strides toward active compliance, I wouldn’t be disturbed.”
This entailed Bramlett “building a covered structure” under which his merch could be displayed. But after exploring this concept, he discovered that “you couldn’t build a compatible structure without variances and permissions being granted by the county, which was never going to happen. No reality would have allowed anything like that to be built, which should have absolved me.”
By then, however, Lubrano had moved on (he’s currently an assistant attorney general for the State of Colorado), and his replacement, Kasandra Carleton, wasn’t impressed by an alternative plan he submitted. In an April 14 email exchange with Bramlett that he shared with Westword, she pointed out that “your proposal may address the outdoor storage violation but it appears to be similar to a previous one you made and planning indicated they would not support it. They have not changed their position on this. Based on all of the circumstances of this case, (the history of this property and violation, etc.), I would not consider applications as you set out below to be in compliance with the settlement agreement. Daily penalties will accrue.”
The next day’s court order underscored this opinion. Hence, Bramlett began looking for a new place to move A House of Pots, and he says he’s found one in Denver County; he isn’t publicly sharing the address yet because the pact hasn’t been finalized, but he expects that to happen soon. In the meantime, he’s offering what he considers to be incredible bargains on his stock simply because such deep discounts will lighten the load he’ll have to transport. He hopes to have everything either sold or moved by May 11, a week before the deadline imposed upon him.
Over its nearly six years of operation to date, A House of Pots has gained a stellar reputation. Bramlett points proudly to the Google Maps rating of 5.0, based on nearly 2,200 comments. A highlighted review reads in part: “Just a fun little place with lots of pottery and plants…and the owner is just one of the nicest people ever. I love feeling good about supporting small local businesses like this, and this one definitely makes me feel good. I highly recommend A House Of Pots, and I will definitely be back.”
Future patrons won’t be able to shop on the Adams County plot for long, and Bramlett remains baffled by the logic of targeting his shop. In his view, “it’s an extreme display of power and coercing me into giving them what they want, which doesn’t help anyone other than someone who religiously adheres to procedure. It won’t help Adams County, because it’s taking sales tax away from them, and my cumulative average customer satisfaction is through the roof.”
Indeed, sales have been so good that Bramlett knew he could cover the penalties he’s accrued to date — but the process proved unexpectedly difficult. Last week, he notes, “I attempted to pay my outstanding fines in full. The court order says pay the Board of Commissioners directly. When I get to their office, they don’t know what to do. They say go to the County Attorney’s office, who’ll take the payment on their behalf. Except the attorneys can’t, won’t, and don’t know how. The prosecutor who pursued the charges against me is in the office, but won’t speak to me. The office ladies then tell me to rush across town to the County Courthouse to pay the clerks there. So I do. I get inside the building at 4:30 when they close at 4:30. I go see the window the Attorney’s Office told me to go see, window number 5. No dice…. It’s all frustrating, but not surprising.”
On April 28, Bramlett was apparently more successful: He sent Westword a photo of a check for $4,400 along with a handwritten acceptance receipt from the county’s legal office. Now, he just has to remove all the pots and plants outside on the West 74th Way property to fully purge that contempt of his, and he’s confident he’ll manage before he and his wife are imprisoned. “This would be what I would call first-world problems,” he maintains. “I’m a very blessed man. It’s been a nightmare, but what a privilege to deal with such baloney.”
