June 24, 2007 04:37 PM UTC

The Lonesome Death of Larry Manzanares

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• by: Colorado Pols

An unthinkable end to the sad story of former Denver City Attorney Larry Manzanares was reported by news wires yesterday afternoon. As the Denver Post reports this morning:

Anger and sadness settled Saturday on those who remembered Larry Manzanares for his lifelong service to the community and blamed his suicide on excessive publicity surrounding the scandal that toppled his career.

Harvard-educated Manzanares, 50, who had been a popular and well- respected local judge for 15 years, resigned from his nearly 2-month-old post as city attorney in February after a stolen laptop was found in his possession. Felony charges of theft, embezzlement and tampering with evidence were filed against him June 13.

The former judge was dealing with a collapsing career, possible prison time and media scrutiny of his personal life. He shot himself Friday, just hours after he was advised of the charges against him in court…

Many friends and city officials declined to talk about the death and expressed anger at the district attorney and the media for how the case played out publicly.

They were concerned that his case got too much attention in the media and that prosecutors were overly zealous.

Prosecutors declined to address that criticism Saturday.

For the record, we’ve only written twice about the Manzanares affair: once last February, and again this past week. Our latest post briefly referenced reports that the allegedly stolen laptop contained pornography–the least significant part of the story, as we indicated with some obligatory snark.

By contrast, the Rocky Mountain News published more than ten stories about Manzanares between June 14th and this past Friday alone. The Denver Post wrote at least five, and the news wires and television outlets account for many more. One of the Post’s stories was titled “Ex-judge charged in sex laptop case,” as if downloading porn onto the laptop after it was stolen was more important than the act of stealing it. Another story from the Rocky on June 15th titled “Black cloud will linger for judge” discussed how Manzanares would be “forever tainted” by this situation, even if he was found innocent.

Compare that to the Rocky’s coverage of the charges pending against former Jefferson County Treasurer Mark Paschall, accused of soliciting a top aide for thousands of dollars in kickbacks, illegal investment of over $60 million in county funds, and other truly serious misdeeds–for all that, coverage of Paschall’s case has never even approached the fevered, almost obsessive level of reporting about Manzanares in the Denver press.

And now Larry Manzanares is dead.

We regret any contribution we may have made to the media frenzy that precipitated his suicide–and we hope we will not be the last to express regret.