Colorado § 42-2-136 - Unlawful possession or use of license.

§ 42-2-136. Unlawful possession or use of license.

(1) (a) No person shall have in such person's possession a lawfully issued driver's, minor driver's, or temporary driver's license or instruction permit, knowing that such license or permit has been falsely altered by means of erasure, obliteration, deletion, insertion of new matter, transposition of matter, or any other means so that such license or permit in its thus altered form falsely appears or purports to be in all respects an authentic and lawfully issued license or permit.

(b) No person shall fraudulently obtain a driver's, minor driver's, or temporary driver's license or an instruction permit.

(2) No person shall have in such person's possession a paper, document, or other instrument which falsely appears or purports to be in all respects a lawfully issued and authentic driver's, minor driver's, or temporary driver's license or instruction permit, knowing that such instrument was falsely made and was not lawfully issued.

(3) No person shall display or represent as being such person's own any driver's, minor driver's, or temporary driver's license or any instruction permit which was lawfully issued to another person.

(4) No person shall fail or refuse to surrender to the department upon its lawful demand any driver's, minor driver's, or temporary driver's license or any instruction or temporary permit issued to such person which has been suspended, revoked, or canceled by the department. The department shall notify the district attorney's office in the county where such violation occurred, in writing, of all violations of this subsection (4).

(5) No person shall permit any unlawful use of a driver's license issued to such person.

(5.5) No person shall photograph, photostat, duplicate, or in any way reproduce any driver's license or facsimile thereof for the purpose of distribution, resale, reuse, or manipulation of the data or images contained in such driver's license unless authorized by the department or otherwise authorized by law.

(6) (a) Any person who violates any provision of subsections (1) to (5) of this section commits a class 2 misdemeanor.

(b) Any person who violates any provision of subsection (5.5) of this section commits a petty offense and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished as provided in section 18-1.3-503.

(c) A person who violates this section violates section 18-5-121 and, in addition to any other penalty, is subject to the penalties of section 18-5-121 (6).

Source: L. 94: Entire title amended with relocations, p. 2154, § 1, effective January 1, 1995. L. 97: (5.5) added and (6) amended, p. 354, § 2, effective August 6. L. 2000: (1) to (4) amended, p. 1357, § 33, effective July 1, 2001. L. 2001: (1) amended, p. 941, § 8, effective July 1. L. 2002: (6)(b) amended, p. 1560, § 363, effective October 1. L. 2021: (6) amended, (SB 21-271), ch. 462, p. 3300, § 709, effective March 1, 2022. L. 2025: (6)(c) added, (HB 25-1076), ch. 16, p. 61, § 2, effective August 6.

Editor's note: This section is similar to former § 42-2-128 as it existed prior to 1994.

Cross references: (1) For the penalty for a class 2 misdemeanor, see § 18-1.3-501.

(2) For the legislative declaration contained in the 2002 act amending subsection (6)(b), see section 1 of chapter 318, Session Laws of Colorado 2002.

ANNOTATION

Annotator's note. Since § 42-2-136 is similar to § 42-2-128 as it existed prior to the 1994 amending of title 42 as enacted by SB 94-1, a relevant case construing that provision has been included with the annotations to this section.

This statute forbids possession of a "fictitious" operator's license. People v. LaRocco, 178 Colo. 196, 496 P.2d 314 (1972) (decided under repealed § 13-4-28, C.R.S. 1963).