DENVER — The FOX31 Problem Solvers discovered the man at the center of the plane crash off the coast of California has had several run-ins with police in Colorado and Oregon.

David Lesh received a citation from a wildlife officer for harassing a bull moose in Summit County in 2014. He was accused of chasing the animal with his car and on foot.

Promotional video for one of Lesh’s companies shows him chasing a moose and the moose chasing him. The video also shows a wildlife officer confronting Lesh.

“This moose just happened to attack me, and I chased it off,” Lesh told the FOX31 Problem Solvers.

Lesh was arrested in Boulder County that same year for a felony arson charge. He later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor mischief. According to court records, officers were investigating a group of 25 grocery carts that had been set on fire and found video of Lesh using a torch to light them.

“I thought it would be fun to make a pile of shopping carts, light them on fire and jump (my) car through them,” said Lesh of the incident. He said the carts were on an empty lot behind his warehouse, and he wanted to jump his “old, junky” car through the carts.

Lesh is also facing a civil suit in Denver court for a traffic incident in 2017. The suit alleges that Lesh was driving negligently and recklessly and caused the trailer he was pulling to collide with another car, causing injuries to the other people involved.

According to the Denver Police Department traffic report, neither party was cited because each party gave conflicting information about what happened.

Lesh has several speeding and traffic violations in various counties around Colorado and has a 2004 charge in Oregon for eluding police and reckless endangerment.

Lesh called himself a “calculated risk taker.”

Lori Jane Gliha wrote this report.