When Michael Hancock met with the Denver Post editorial board on Monday, the mayor-elect told us he’d never intended to bar this newspaper and 9News from examining records that might help cleanse the taint of possible scandal from his past. “A misunderstanding” is how Hancock characterized the impasse that triggered an article in Saturday’s Post outlining an explosive accusation that he had been a client of prostitutes several years ago.
We don’t believe there was a misunderstanding. We believe the Hancock campaign simply backed off its initial agreement to allow reporters to inspect relevant phone and bank records. But to his credit, Hancock relented this week and granted reporters access to his cellphone records under conditions acceptable to both parties. That examination may not have exonerated Hancock in any absolute sense — you can’t prove a negative, as Hancock himself told us — but it goes a long way toward putting the issue behind him.
As the Post’s Chuck Plunkett reported Wednesday, “more than 150 numbers identified by the news organizations as having been used by former Denver Players employees and associates” were not found on Hancock’s phone records for the time periods during which he was accused by a former owner of the prostitution business of being a customer.
The Post and 9News still intend to review a couple months of phone records that T-Mobile had difficulty finding for Hancock, as well as certain bank records, but the likelihood of anything surfacing now from these records seems remote. The very fact that Hancock is willing to provide them suggests he has nothing to hide. If so, he can get on with the critical task of preparing to take the reins of office in mid-July without distractions that could have triggered his downfall before he was even sworn in.
The fellow who peddled this story to the news media was Scottie Ewing, a convicted criminal and a former owner of Denver Players. When The Post learned of his uncorroborated claims, it treated them as it would any other potentially major story and attempted to test their accuracy, looking for documents, testimony, witnesses, photographs and anything else that might support or disprove Ewing’s accusations. The other major Denver media chose a similar course.
Had anything of a supporting nature surfaced, The Post would have published the story immediately — but no supporting information came to light.
Not everyone held back for lack of supporting evidence, though. The blog Complete Colorado broke the ice on June 2 with a straightforward, bare-bones report that included records kept by Ewing listing someone named “Michael Handcock” as a client, along with an angry denial from the Hancock campaign. And then the circus began.
A few talk radio hosts — most notably Peter Boyles — seized the story and proceeded to spin phony tales of conspiracy between the media and Hancock to suppress the news. And when Boyles — who in recent years has become the court jester of local broadcasting — wasn’t performing his conspiracy shtick, he was casually smearing good journalists for alleged cowardice, laziness or incompetence.
Knowing Boyles, we’re betting he can milk another six weeks of material for his shows from recent events without a single new fact. It’s a living, we guess, but we hope any credibility he still has will be appropriately judged by the small number of people who tune in to hear his never- ending conspiracy theories.
If Hancock is now in the clear — and we emphasize if until every lead has been run down — he can devote his attention to choosing key members of his administration and other pre-inaugural chores. The news of recent days has at times overshadowed the fact that he won a decisive electoral victory just nine days ago. And while we didn’t support his candidacy, we certainly hope his administration will be a success. It’s in the interest of not only Denver residents, but also the entire state.
