DENVER-
Gov. Bill Ritter will not ask for a special prosecutor or any other kind of review in prosecutors’ decisions not to file sexual assault charges against University of Colorado football players and recruits, Ritter’s spokesman said Thursday.
Attorney David Heckenbach told Ritter that prosecutors “mishandled” an assault complaint his client filed in 2000 against a CU football recruit who went on to join the team. In a letter, Heckenbach asked Ritter to review the case.
Attorney Blaine Kerr, who represents another woman who filed a civil suit alleging she was raped by CU players in 2001, also wrote Ritter urging a review of Heckenbach’s client’s case and others.
Ritter’s spokesman, Evan Dreyer, said the governor “will not be intervening in either of these two cases based on the information we have been presented with.”
Dreyer said the governor’s office was sending letters to the two attorneys explaining the decision, but he provided no further information.
The lawsuit filed by Kerr’s client, Lisa Simpson, who has agreed to be publicly identified, triggered multiple investigations and a wave of reforms at the University of Colorado. A number of women said they had been assaulted by football players or recruits, but no sexual assault charges were filed.
Kerr said he was not requesting Ritter to intervene in his client’s case, but suggested a special prosecutor could be warranted in Hickenbacher’s client’s case.
“Because there seems to be at least an appearance of political considerations influencing these decisions, they should be independently revisited,” Kerr said. His letter said prosecutors had backed off on a decision to file charges in the case.
Heckenbach’s complaint to Ritter centered on the district attorney’s office in Arapahoe County, where his client alleged she was assaulted. He has asked District Attorney Carol Chambers, who was not in office when his client filed her initial complaint, to reopen the case.
Chambers said it would be up to the sheriff to determine whether any new evidence warranted reopening the case. She said the case had some “significant proof problems.”
Heckenbach’s letter took issue only with prosecutors. He said the police investigation was professional and thorough.
