Rep. Jovan Melton’s character and his credibility are in serious question after The Denver Post reported last week that he pleaded guilty to harassment in 1999 after Boulder police arrested the then-20-year-old University of Colorado student on domestic violence related charges.
Melton should withdraw from the election so a Democratic vacancy committee can appoint a candidate who doesn’t have a scandal impeding his or her ability to effectively represent House District 41 in southwest Aurora.
The victim in the 1999 case, Melton’s former girlfriend, told police that night and later wrote in a request for a permanent restraining order that Melton had previously pushed her down so forcefully it broke her tailbone in two places.
Also in that restraining order application the woman, whose name is not being reported because of the nature of the case, reported that Melton had twice sexually assaulted her.
Melton denies the accusations and said the woman’s tailbone was broken during consensual sex.
Nearly a decade later, in 2008, Denver police arrested Melton on a misdemeanor assault charge after a different girlfriend told police at the scene of an accident that Melton had hit her while she was driving causing the crash. That charge was later dropped.
We are sympathetic to the fact that Melton was still a college student when he pleaded guilty to harassment, and that the justice system in this state and across the nation has routinely failed men of color; Jovan Melton is black. Itap reasonable to assume that a white college student would be exceedingly less likely to have been arrested and charged in 1999 under similar circumstances.
But Melton’s denials of these well-documented events are not credible. In 1999 it was a neighbor who called the police, and she and a roommate both corroborated the victim’s story of domestic violence and verbal abuse.
Then there are Melton’s bewildering public statements. He has flat denied domestic violence in both cases, which means that he is accusing both women of lying, while he also is saying that he is “deeply committed to seeking the appropriate counseling to ensure that my emotions never fuel these types of events in the future….”
None of that adds up.
If Melton is re-elected in November, he would not only be a distraction at the General Assembly, where his colleagues would be forced to reckon with the fact that Melton, the Democratic majority deputy whip in the state House, didn’t disclose these incidents for the past six years he has been in office. Democrats ousted a member last session for credible allegations of work-place sexual harassment. Would they oust a member for a decades old guilty plea to harassment and allegations of sexual assault cited in a restraining order but for which an arrest was never made and no charges were ever filed? Is it the job of lawmakers to investigate such criminal allegations that are past the statute of limitations and where the victim did not come forward voluntarily?
We urge Melton to withdraw from this election and spare his colleagues and the women in these cases.
But also, we would like to emphasize that we don’t think Melton should be barred from all future public service. If he were to seek public office again, while being transparent about these issues in his past, and win voter approval, that would be an entirely different circumstance. Everyone deserves redemption and second chances and Melton has been a leader at the Capitol.
However, this election — just weeks away in a district that leans heavily Democratic — cannot be viewed as a referendum on Melton’s credibility.
If Melton refuses to withdraw, we would urge those living in House District 41 to vote for the Republican on their ballot
Because the Republican whose name is on the ballot — Dahlia Jean Weinstein — has withdrawn from the race, a vote for Weinstein is a vote for the very competent candidate, Lynn Myers, who was appointed by a GOP committee.
Myers is a former Arapahoe County Commissioner and realtor who is senior vice president of the Denver South Economic Development Partnership. She’s involved with two nonprofits and would be a fine representative even for constituents from the other party.
Voters should consider putting someone in office who they can unequivocally trust, even if itap outside their party, over a candidate who hid these problems for years and has responded in a way that leaves us jumping through hoops to follow his logic. Ultimately we are left with disbelief.
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