A former top official at Denver’s Parks and Recreation Department on Tuesday withdrew her request for a restraining order against the director of finance under former Mayor Wellington Webb.
Jude O’Connor said that since she followed through last week on her long-held plans to retire from her post as the head of the city’s natural-resources division, she saw no need for the restraining order anymore.
She maintained that she had good reason to seek the restraining order against Andrew Wallach, which he has characterized as frivolous, unnecessary and aimed at squelching his complaints about the city’s parks system.
“I wish to reiterate the point: This matter is and always has been about me and my personal safety,” O’Connor said in a prepared statement.
She sought the restraining order last month because she said Wallach was barraging her and other city officials with e-mails “with a threatening undertone.”
Wallach has said the restraining order violated his First Amendment right to free speech. He said he sent the e-mails to O’Connor because she is part of what he characterizes as a management top-heavy parks system that is unresponsive to the citizenry.
County Judge Johnny Barajas last month issued a temporary restraining order against Wallach barring him from contacting O’Connor and from coming within 100 yards of the Parks Department offices on the sixth floor of the Webb Municipal Building.
Tuesday, O’Connor and Wallach appeared for a scheduled hearing before Barajas to determine whether the judge should make the restraining order final.
O’Connor at that time told the judge that she would rescind her request.
Wallach’s lawyer, Lonn Heymann, asked Barajas to waive his client’s attorney fees, which the judge declined to do. The judge instructed Heymann to file his request in writing for reconsideration.
O’Connor, in a prepared statement, said she made the request because she had felt threatened. She contends Wallach is out to smear her because she once had to discipline his wife, who works at the Parks and Recreation Department.
Wallach has stopped e-mailing O’Connor but continues to send e-mails to other city officials. In fact, later Tuesday, Wallach sent another e-mail to Kevin Patterson, the manager of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, questioning why Jill McGran ahan, the spokeswoman for the department, showed up at the hearing and demanding to know whether McGranahan had done so on her own personal time.
McGranahan declined to comment.
Christopher N. Osher: 303-954-1747 or cosher@denverpost.com
