FEDERAL HEIGHTS – Federal Heights Mayor Dale Sparks, charged with violating the city’s ethics code over his former employment at a strip club, has pleaded not guilty.
Sparks filed the paperwork pleading not guilty Tuesday, said Federal Heights municipal court administrator Donna Burghard.
He had been scheduled for an arraignment Wednesday.
Sparks faces charges of violating the city’s conflict-of-interest code and the city’s code prohibiting a city employee from disclosing confidential information.
He has also been charged with complicity in a criminal enterprise.
Sparks was working the door at the Bare Essence strip club when police raided it in April.
An ethics investigation by an outside attorney accused Sparks of revealing the identity of an undercover police officer to Bare Essence’s owner and of trying to get information from Federal Heights employees whether the officer was doing an investigation of the club.
Sparks has said he did not know about the prostitution, illegal touching and other offenses investigators claim occurred at the club. He has said he was not trying to subvert the police investigation into the club.
