Attorneys Vince DiMichele, left, and Sarah Schielke. (Instagram/YouTube)
One lawyer’s naked dash to a concert stage has led to another lawyer’s public chiding.
In February 2022, the jam band Phish played a concert in Cancun, Mexico. Among the crowd was attorney Vince DiMichele and a woman identified in court documents as J.R.
“The second set is when things really went off the rails for me,” DiMichele recalled.
“‘Carini’ exploded my mind into one million sparkling bits of love dust through which I had to fight against the dying of the light and find my way to the stage,” he said. “Unfortunately, I chose to do it by sprinting naked with my eyes closed through the crowd.”
“Carini” is a song whose lyrics (“I saw you with Carini and that naked dude/I could not eat my food”) reference a 1998 incident in which a nude man ran on a Phish stage.
During his own blind run, DiMichele crashed into fellow concertgoers and had to watch the band’s encore from a medical tent, as he explained in a post on a Phish fan site.
“All in all, my deepest apologies to anyone who had to deal with my nonsense last night,” DiMichele wrote the next day, “but this show is why we do what we do.”
Among those he allegedly injured was J.R., who read the post and became distressed, believing that DiMichele was “boasting” and “appearing to brag” about his actions, according to court records. So, she contacted a close friend: Loveland lawyer Sarah Schielke.
Schielke was named one of USA Today’s “Women of the Year” last year for her success suing police departments accused of civil rights violations. A plaque at her office reads, “Thank you to the Loveland Police Department, whose incompetence paid for this building.”
Coincidentally, like DiMichele and J.R., she is also a Phish fan.
Schielke wrote a forceful demand letter to DiMichele, threatening to sue him in Mexico and the United States, to file criminal complaints, to release an unredacted video of him from the concert, to have him banned from Phish shows, to alert his employer and undergraduate alma mater about the incident, and to issue a press release about it.
The letter was explicit, calling DiMichele “a terrible (expletive) attorney,” “a violent (expletive),” “a shameless, ridiculous boasting (expletive),” “a violent psychopath,” “an idiot,” and finally, “a disgrace to the Colorado Bar, the Phish community, and your family.”
The letter, which was also sent to DiMichele’s parents, demanded that he pay $50,000 to J.R., never contact her again, and stay 25 feet away from her at future Phish shows. DiMichele did not agree to those terms and no settlement was ever reached. Schielke and J.R. have not sued him or followed through on Schielke’s other threats either.
Instead, it is Schielke who has found herself punished. She was investigated by the Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation and, in a settlement with the office, agreed to be censured for threatening DiMichele and using words that embarrass him. She was fined $224.
In their agreement, Schielke and the office wrote that she “has expressed great remorse” for the demand letter. In a statement to BusinessDen, she did not express great remorse.
“This guy decided to strip naked and violently stampede through a peaceful crowd at a beach concert. In so doing, he injured and traumatized someone I love and care about. Then, using his actual name, he went online and bragged about it, in multiple public forums, causing my friend even more distress. It was a lot,” Schielke said on Monday.
“I stand by everything I said about the guy, but I recognize that none of that content should have been included in a demand letter from an attorney. I lost my objectivity and that was a mistake. Lesson learned. When you’re close to the client and emotions are high, the better way to help a best friend is to just refer the case out,” Schielke said.
DiMichele passed the Colorado bar exam in 2020. He has never been disciplined but is listed as an inactive attorney who is living in Utah, state records show. He works at Canna Advisors, a cannabis consulting company in Boulder, according to his LinkedIn page.
Reached by email this week, DiMichele declined to comment on the Schielke matter.
Attorneys Vince DiMichele, left, and Sarah Schielke. (Instagram/YouTube)
One lawyer’s naked dash to a concert stage has led to another lawyer’s public chiding.
In February 2022, the jam band Phish played a concert in Cancun, Mexico. Among the crowd was attorney Vince DiMichele and a woman identified in court documents as J.R.
“The second set is when things really went off the rails for me,” DiMichele recalled.
“‘Carini’ exploded my mind into one million sparkling bits of love dust through which I had to fight against the dying of the light and find my way to the stage,” he said. “Unfortunately, I chose to do it by sprinting naked with my eyes closed through the crowd.”
“Carini” is a song whose lyrics (“I saw you with Carini and that naked dude/I could not eat my food”) reference a 1998 incident in which a nude man ran on a Phish stage.
During his own blind run, DiMichele crashed into fellow concertgoers and had to watch the band’s encore from a medical tent, as he explained in a post on a Phish fan site.
“All in all, my deepest apologies to anyone who had to deal with my nonsense last night,” DiMichele wrote the next day, “but this show is why we do what we do.”
Among those he allegedly injured was J.R., who read the post and became distressed, believing that DiMichele was “boasting” and “appearing to brag” about his actions, according to court records. So, she contacted a close friend: Loveland lawyer Sarah Schielke.
Schielke was named one of USA Today’s “Women of the Year” last year for her success suing police departments accused of civil rights violations. A plaque at her office reads, “Thank you to the Loveland Police Department, whose incompetence paid for this building.”
Coincidentally, like DiMichele and J.R., she is also a Phish fan.
Schielke wrote a forceful demand letter to DiMichele, threatening to sue him in Mexico and the United States, to file criminal complaints, to release an unredacted video of him from the concert, to have him banned from Phish shows, to alert his employer and undergraduate alma mater about the incident, and to issue a press release about it.
The letter was explicit, calling DiMichele “a terrible (expletive) attorney,” “a violent (expletive),” “a shameless, ridiculous boasting (expletive),” “a violent psychopath,” “an idiot,” and finally, “a disgrace to the Colorado Bar, the Phish community, and your family.”
The letter, which was also sent to DiMichele’s parents, demanded that he pay $50,000 to J.R., never contact her again, and stay 25 feet away from her at future Phish shows. DiMichele did not agree to those terms and no settlement was ever reached. Schielke and J.R. have not sued him or followed through on Schielke’s other threats either.
Instead, it is Schielke who has found herself punished. She was investigated by the Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation and, in a settlement with the office, agreed to be censured for threatening DiMichele and using words that embarrass him. She was fined $224.
In their agreement, Schielke and the office wrote that she “has expressed great remorse” for the demand letter. In a statement to BusinessDen, she did not express great remorse.
“This guy decided to strip naked and violently stampede through a peaceful crowd at a beach concert. In so doing, he injured and traumatized someone I love and care about. Then, using his actual name, he went online and bragged about it, in multiple public forums, causing my friend even more distress. It was a lot,” Schielke said on Monday.
“I stand by everything I said about the guy, but I recognize that none of that content should have been included in a demand letter from an attorney. I lost my objectivity and that was a mistake. Lesson learned. When you’re close to the client and emotions are high, the better way to help a best friend is to just refer the case out,” Schielke said.
DiMichele passed the Colorado bar exam in 2020. He has never been disciplined but is listed as an inactive attorney who is living in Utah, state records show. He works at Canna Advisors, a cannabis consulting company in Boulder, according to his LinkedIn page.
Reached by email this week, DiMichele declined to comment on the Schielke matter.
