MAYOR BRIEFS CITY COUNCIL
Hancock, city attorney take questions from council members on text-message scandal.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock briefs nearly all City Council members on the recent revelation that he sent sexually suggestive text messages to an officer.
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and a city attorney briefed nearly all City Council members and took questions Tuesday on matters surrounding the recent revelation that he sent sexually suggestive text messages to an officer on Hancock’s security detail.
But the discussion happened behind closed doors, after the public had been ushered out at the end of the open portion of the weekly mayor-council meeting.
Twelve of 13 council members attended, and a city spokeswoman confirmed that they were asked to sign nondisclosure agreements because of restrictions in a past city settlement that’s at issue.
The briefing came a day after Councilman Rafael Espinoza urged Hancock to initiate an outside investigation into the text messages and the 2012 firing of a mayoral aide against whom the same security detail police officer, Detective Leslie BranchWise, made sexual harassment allegations. Hancock sent the recently revealed texts to BranchWise around the same time.
The mayor’s office has brushed off Espinoza’s suggestion, although the councilman wrote in his letter to the mayor on Monday that an independent probe could produce “a full and accurate accounting” to the public of what occurred.
Some council members, including Kevin Flynn, disagree with Espinoza’s call.
Flynn did not reveal what was discussed during Tuesday’s executive session briefing, but he said he received straightforward information in earlier one-on-one conversations with Hancock and City Attorney Kristin Bronson.
“So far, what I’m getting does not give rise to the need for any special investigation,” Flynn said. “But I do have a few remaining questions that I’m getting ready to discuss with the city attorney in the next few days. … At this point, there’s nothing in the information I’ve gathered that tells me that the mayor needs to resign.”
Hancock has faced calls for his resignation from some city activists and from the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police, which represents Denver Sheriff Department deputies but not Denver police officers.
Those reactions greeted the news of his text messages Feb. 27, when Branch-Wise spoke about them publicly for the first time in an interview with Denver7. She produced images of several text messages in which Hancock asked her about pole dancing and complimented her dress and appearance, telling her: “You make it hard on a brotha to keep it correct every day.”
Hancock apologized, saying he
didn’t realize until BranchWise spoke out that she felt harassed by him six years ago.
Late Tuesday, president Albus Brooks issued a statement, on behalf of the council, that said members stand against sexual harassment and will seek to monitor legal claims against the city more closely. But the statement leaned against any further investigation without Branch-Wise’s consent.
“While we strive to be transparent, City Council members cannot comment further on the legal aspects of these matters given the confidentiality requirements,” the written state- ment says. “We want the people of Denver to know that at no time prior to the recent media reports were we aware of the texts currently at issue; we learned of them when you did and have been seeking information ever since.”
Espinoza told Denver7 that Tuesday’s closed-door briefing answered some questions but that he still had concerns remaining.
Espinoza has joined some of Hancock’s critics in questioning whether the text messages were a factor in a $200,000 settlement in 2016 with the former aide, Wayne McDonald, who had been a longtime Hancock friend. McDonald had challenged his firing and disputed Branch-Wise’s harassment claims in a lawsuit.
In 2013, Branch-Wise settled with the city for $75,000.