The primary business phone numbers for the former Denver Players and Denver Sugar prostitution businesses aren’t found in any of the hundreds of pages of personal cellphone records released Tuesday by Mayor-elect Michael Hancock.
The two main landline numbers published by the former escort services on their websites and in advertising were not listed as either incoming or outgoing calls recorded in the call inventories Hancock provided for review by The Denver Post and 9News. The inventories provided by Hancock encompassed periods when records kept by a former owner of the prostitution service allege that Hancock was a customer.
The pair of numbers tested were cited by federal investigators in January 2008 as the central numbers used by clients of the prostitution business.
The review of the uncensored call inventories was continuing overnight, as the news organizations compared more than 150 numbers used by former Denver Players employees and associates to the Hancock records.
While not definitive, the absence of Denver Players’ main numbers in Hancock’s cell records is the best evidence yet to rebut allegations by the service’s former owner that Hancock was a client.
“The records cover a period of time spanning four years, and the review found nothing to substantiate these hateful allegations against me,” Hancock said in a prepared statement released Tuesday night. “In addition, I have provided the news media with my calendar records, and the Denver Police Department has stated it has no evidence to support these allegations.”
Scottie J. Ewing, who owned the business from 2003 to 2005, has said most customers had to provide a phone number that would be called and verified, and Hancock’s cell number is included in Ewing’s client book. But not all necessarily took that route, and notations next to Hancock’s name in the appointment logs alleged he called from payphones.
Still, Hancock said his willingness to be vetted and transparent was, when combined with the results, a big step toward putting the controversy behind him as he prepares to assume office July 18.
Unedited and unredacted
The release of unedited and unredacted personal cellphone records came eight business days after The Post and 9News requested them.
The news organizations sought the records after the blog Complete Colorado posted on June 2 copies of records purportedly from Denver Players that indicated the defunct business once had a client identified as “Mike Handcock” who used the city councilman’s personal cellphone number as his account number. Hancock has repeatedly denied ever engaging services of any prostitute.
The Post and 9News reviewed records once owned by Ewing that indicate the client paid cash for the services of prostitutes on ” 4/16,” ” 5/16″ and “1 0/17.”
No years were listed in the appointment logs, but Ewing said the hour-long appointments would have occurred between 2004 and 2006. Ewing reported the documents stolen in a burglary of his home the day before Hancock was elected mayor June 7.
Tuesday afternoon, The Post and 9News sent a team of 10 editors, reporters and researchers to the law offices of Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber and Schreck to examine hundreds of pages of cell records for the months of March, April, May, September and October from 2004 through 2007. The review began at 3:35 p.m. and was continuing past midnight.
Two months of the requested billing cycles — February 27 through March 28, 2005, and March 27 through April 28, 2007 — were missing from the review. In an e-mail to Hancock’s attorneys, T-Mobile blamed a glitch for the omission and said it was still trying to retrieve the information. The missing 2007 records were for a period well past the time Ewing had sold Denver Players and probably were not compatible with the appointments Ewing’s book reflected.
But what was reviewed, representing the most likely times when Hancock would have called Denver Players had he ever been a customer, provided no evidence that such a call was ever made from the cellphone number that purportedly became part of the company’s records.
Additionally, Hancock’s cellphone was frequently in use at times when the appointment logs alleged he was engaged with a prostitute. Of the nine possible times over the three years most likely covered by log books, Hancock’s cellphone was in use during five.
Ewing in home detention
Through a plea deal reached this year, Ewing is paying nearly $80,000 in fines and serving a six-month home-detention sentence for tax charges. Former owner Brenda Lynn Stewart awaits sentencing later this year in a separate plea deal.
A message seeking comment from Ewing was not immediately returned Tuesday night.
Hancock’s campaign initially agreed on June 3 to release cellphone and bank records to The Post and 9News then reversed course Friday. After several days of negotiations, an agreement acceptable to all parties was reached, allowing Tuesday’s review to begin.
Hancock’s attorneys are collecting financial records and said the data would be made available later.
Denver Post staff writers Sara Burnett, Anthony Cotton, Kurtis Lee and researchers Barbara Hudson and Vickie Makings contributed to this report, as did Nicole Vap, Deborah Sherman and Jessie James from 9News.
Chuck Plunkett: 303-954-1333 or cplunkett@denverpost.com
