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June 28, 2007 04:00 PM UTC
23 Comments
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Had he NOT gone after him, then all the repubicans would be rightfully screaming bloody murder (but it is ok that we have traitors in the white house or that they lie to DOJ).
Instead, the man did his job, and the dems are upset. The truth is, that Manzanares did the crimes, and then took his life. This is Manzanares’ fault. It was a shame that he did so, but I am guessing that he was afraid of going to jail as well as the destruction to his name. He avoided jail, but his name was already trashed.
Rather than look for a boogey man where none exists, it is better to let it drop. I am guessing that if you look into the DA’s, then more information about Manzanares will have to be forthcoming. Anybody sure that they want this? If dropped, then the man will be mostly remembered for mostly wonderful things, rather than the dark side that we all have and will certainly need to be exposed.
Manzanares had only been accused of a crime, not convicted. I’m sure we still follow the innocent until proven guilty theory.
I like that. And it is best to keep it that way. Of course, from where I sit, the guy was in control of at least one computer that he claims he bought on the street from a stranger. And he was looking at jail time for that so he took his life? hmmmm.
I say, let sleeping dogs lie. Better to stop this witch hunt. Once it starts, it will develop a life of its own. And I would guess that Manzaeres supporters are going to be even more upset.
We now have Gitmo, warrantless wiretaps, and can be declared an enemy combatant and lose all rights including Habeas Corpus. We are guilty until proven innocent… with being able to go to court or talk to a lawyer.
We have have arm-chair judges passing judgement through the media. Perception and politicalization of guilt is what we must all deal with now.
Looks like it to me. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being a certainty, I’d give it a 9.5.
Manzanares effectively admitted his guilt to Tony Kovaleski, and Tony caught it on tape. No one except for the terminally gullible and hopelessly partisan would believe his ridiculous alibi.
Did Storey do anything out of the ordinary in publicizing this case? Was this kind of exposure unusual given Manzanares’ stature in city government? If the answer is yes then sanctions are probably in order. It’s arguable (though speculative) that the added humiliation from the press coverage worsened his mental state.
Still, windbourne is right – in all likelihood Manzanares was guilty and he was entirely responsible for his decision to end his life.
I don’t know the answer. My feeling is that DAs should only discuss charged crimes in press conferences and so on, and so the porn stuff was out of line. But it isn’t like I have looked into the issue.
The DA held a press conference, sought to embarrass the defendant into a plea bargain, saving both the state and defendant a lot of time and money.
Is that a new strategy?
How many plea bargains did Bill Ritter negotiate?
What does it say about the integrity of those who are defending a man who confirmed his guilt by committing suicide?
Those pursuing this case will look a lot worse than the DA, because their integrity and judgment look horrible and will not look better as the debates continue.
I don’t have a horse in this race, maybe the porn comments were over the top. In general, I don’t like tring people in the media.
but I don’t understand your points.
Remember the Kobe Bryant rape case?
Storey did his job. But you can expect that the Democrats who run the hopelessly corrupt partisan lynch mob we call attorney regulation counsel will go after him with every knife they have.
I am not clear what you are saying here. I think most agree the DA should have prosecuted. It was the media circus that seemed over the top.
The only issues I am aware of are whether Storey publicized facts it is ordinarily unethical for a prosecutor to publicize, and if so whether he had adequate justification for doing so. Particularly given the position of high public trust he holds, an inquiry into these questions is appropriate. But even if the inquiry determines he did act inappropriately, the sanction should be based on the conduct (which I suspect did not go very far over the fuzzy lines which exist in this area), and not on the fact that Manzanares committed suicide. There’s no way Storey deserves to take a fall for that.
The Dems need someone to blame, and they don’t want to blame who might well be the real culprits (Mary Mullarkey and Mitch Morrissey).
I must have underestimated Silverman’s authority. That really does settle the issue.
I’m not blaming Storey. Manzanares stole the damn laptop and charges were entirely appropriate. However, the Rules of Professional Conduct prohibit attorneys under most circumstances from making public comments that could prejudice a case, and both the official comment to the rule and the courts have indicated this rule applies with particular force to prosecutors. An inquiry by the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel into whether Storey violated that rule would be entirely appropriate. My point above was not to throw Storey under the bus but the opposite, to say this is really not a big deal: we are talking about a possible violation (and I don’t know enough to have an opinion whether there was a violation) of a rule that pretty much everyone would agree is not one of the core rules governing attorney conduct.
I’m well aware of the Rule, and how often it is broken … but as a general rule, the only way you can get into trouble in CO is to steal money from a client or sleep with one. CARC has a tendency to protect partisan Dems, however, while going after partisan Republicans, so you will see an investigation.
I think Silverman is a prosecutor hack rather than a Dem hack. Doesn’t he always come down on the side of prosecutor tactics?
The DA did seem a bit over the top with the discussions of porn and so on. Perhaps he needs a warning or a reprimand. This isn’t the stuff disbarments are made of, though.
Compare Storey’s treatment of Manzaneres with the kid gloves he has used with his right wing crony Mark Paschall.
Paschall is clearly a much bigger thief and a much bigger public figure. Instead of a cheap computer Paschall may have stolen millions.
But, Storey has never called a press conference, never given out details that are not germane to the case, and acted as if the law presumes Paschall to be innocent.
That is why Storey’s treatment of Manzaneres was so despicable.
and for whatever reason (must have not been enough sex), the media stifled a collective yawn. The Manzanares scandal was more interesting, on the grounds that other state officials apparently participated in a cover-up and were caught in the act.
It is Jeffco’s policy to publish indictments and issue press releases in high-profile cases. They did so in the Paschall incident:
http://www.co.jeffer…
http://www.co.jeffer…
District Attorney Storey has made Internet predation one of his highest priorities, recently announcing that he caught his 100th suspected predator (http://www.co.jeffer…). If he suspected that Judge Manzanares was in any way involved in that despicable subculture, he might have pushed the envelope.
AFAIK, the porn references were legally necessary, as part of the case against Judge Manzanares was the fact that he was downloading (and later, tried to delete) porn from what was quite obviously a state computer. That he indulged in porn instead of Internet gaming (a separate crime, in and of itself) was of no consequence, except that a puritanical and hypocritical society that doesn’t allow women to take off their tops at beaches finds it titillating.
Manzanares and Paschall had one thing in common: their guilt was established beyond a reasonable doubt by statements they made on tape.