A city employee’s blog has revealed a juicy adultery scandal in Aurora, one of Colorado’s largest cities. The man blogging about his wife’s affair with the fire chief got him fired according to the Rocky Mountain News, whose blog provides excerpts of the posts. In contrast, Aurora has found it impossible to punish Sgt. Charles DeShaze, an Aurora policeman, for brutalizing and spewing racial slurs at an innocent woman and her child, even though the incident was captured on videotape.
Perhaps Aurora was feeling left out. After all, every other local government in the state seems awash in scandal as well.The Aurora Scandals
Aurora was already investigating assistant city attorney Rob Werking, the blog’s author, for writing a letter to the Civil Service Commission signed by a deputy city manager, taking a tough stand against a police officer facing suspension.
According to the Denver Post, Rob Werking’s blog had revealed that Aurora Fire Chief Casey Jones was having an affair with his wife, assistant city attorney Julie Werking, an affair that produced multiple incidents of abuse of city funds and time, and could amount to violations on the part of his wife of rules of professional conduct that apply to attorneys. These charges are now being investigated by the city.
Not surprisingly, the Werkings filed for divorce in January.
Scandal, Scandal Everywhere
Colorado local governments are no strangers to scandal. There have been many of them in the past few years.
Denver’s city attorney Larry Manzanares just resigned for buying a stolen city computer in the City and County building parking lot. Meanwhile Denver magistrate, Robert E. Gilbert just received judicial discipline for hitting on a litigant in a small claim case he handled.
Jefferson County’s former treasurer Mark Paschall is being prosecuted for taking kickbacks, and investigations of Commissioner Jim Congrove, former County Attorney Frank Hutfless and former Assistant County Attorney Duncan Bradley for improper private investigations with public funds continues.
Arapahoe County had to recall clerk and record and sex fiend Tracy Baker and its District Attorney Carol Chambers was disciplined for a breach of judicial ethics.
Aspen area District Attorney Colleen Truden was recalled in 2005, among other things “for being dishonest with other public officials about hiring her husband to work on the computer system in the district attorney’s office. She was accused of spending most of her budget in her first several months in office.”
Larimer County (home to Fort Collins), seemed indifferent to pre-election allegations that their assessor candidate Steve Miller engaged in an affair with an employee during his previous stint at the job and also made a cottage industry out of challenging assessments made using procedures he himself put in place when he held the office. He won the election in 2006.
The Mayor of Federal Heights, Colorado, Dale Sparks, was in hot water for being the doorman at a strip club that was raided for prostitution charges.
And don’t forget Koleen Brooks, the former Mayor of Georgetown, Colorado, who has convicted of making a false police report, recalled, and later convicted of stealing jewelry, or Boulder City Councilman Richard Polk who pleaded guilty to reckless driving after an incident in which he was allegedly smoking pot and having trouble driving within the lines on city streets.
Here at Colorado Confidential, we’ll wait and see which locality joins the list next.
