The Night the Cops Busted DJ BloodPreshah

Thomas “Bloodpreshah” Behler: “Crouched down behind a desk, with the lights out… The flashlights scanned the room as two Fort Collins police officers searched the room for suspects. Minutes earlier, a Reggae Theater Ensemble cast member and I were holding about ten bags of weed and everyone’s pipes, rolling papers and lighters, and were looking for somewhere to hide. Reports of marijuana being smoked at the Lory Student Center Theater were coming in fast, and the CSU police were on site trying to make sense of what was going on.

It was Saturday, February 26, 1994, and the Ensemble’s production of Malcolm X Meet Peter Tosh was in town for one night only. David Daniels, the playwright and founder, went into pretentious-artist mode during police questioning and talked about how the play ‘reflects reality.’ Members of the audience came to our aid by claiming, ‘It was only incense!’ No one got arrested or charged with any crime. We were only told to ‘leave Fort Collins and never come back.'”

DJ BloodPreshah will spin at Reggae on the Grass at Levitt Pavilion on July 20.

Editor’s Note: The Denver Bootleg is a series chronicling the history of local music venues by longtime Denver cartoonist Karl Christian Krumpholz. Visit Krumpholz’s website to see more of his work.