Anti-Ritter ad gets nasty

DA gave wrist slap to driver in fatality, angry mother says

Alan Gathright, Rocky Mountain News

Published September 22, 2006 at midnight

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A Republican group unleashed the nastiest TV ad yet in the governor's race Thursday, showing an angry mother saying former Denver District Attorney Bill Ritter gave a "slap on the wrist" to a hit-and-run driver who killed her 4-year-old daughter during a Mother's Day stroll.

"I think Bill Ritter cares more about the people who commit the crimes and not the people that suffer," September Dixon says in the wrenching 60-second spot about a plea-bargained two-year sentence Sheila Rae Towns received.

Dixon and her three children were struck as they crossed the street in 2000. Her daughter, Alexis, died.

"He also lied and said that I agreed to a plea bargain that I never agree to," Dixon contends in the ad.

A Ritter campaign attorney blasted the advertisement as "false, misleading and deceptive" in a letter demanding that Denver ABC station KMGH-TV halt the "campaign of lies" by a group called Coloradans for Justice.

It's a new entity registered Wednesday by the Trailhead Group, an independent political group created by powerful Republicans Gov. Bill Owens, Pete Coors and Bruce Benson that's repeatedly attacked Democrat Ritter's 12-year tenure as district attorney.

"I am extremely sorry for the loss of Alexis Dixon and the anguish her family has gone and is going through," Ritter said in a statement. "With the evidence we had and the sentencing laws on the books, we took the strongest steps possible to get this woman off the streets and out from behind the wheel of a car."

Ritter's campaign accused Republican opponent Bob Beauprez, Trailhead and its offshoot of exploiting a tragedy - and working in concert in violation of campaign laws.

"Ms. Dixon's suffering is deep, and I am appalled that Congressman Beauprez and his allies would choose to exploit it for political gain," Ritter said.

Beauprez campaign manager John Marshall and Trailhead Executive Director Alan Philp dismissed the accusations.

"As Mr. Ritter knows, we don't have anything to do with this effort," Marshall said.

The Ritter campaign said the ad's narrator falsely states: "For killing a 4-year-old child, Towns served eight months" while adding the printed qualifier that was the time served "after sentencing."

Towns served 15 months of the two-year sentence and an additional six years' probation, including time at an in-patient treatment and punishment center, said Ritter spokesman Evan Dreyer.

Dreyer said it was a tough case to prosecute because of conflicting witness accounts and the fact that Towns fled the scene, preventing police from determining if she was drunk. Such evidence would have supported the stiffer charge of felony vehicular homicide.

Ritter stands by his statement at the time that September Dixon approved the plea deal. "Once we make an offer, we're bound to it," he said in 2000.

"That's a lie," Dixon said in an interview Thursday. "Who would agree to a plea bargain when someone killed their daughter?"

Dreyer accused Beauprez and Trailhead of illegally collaborating in "a disgraceful, shameful campaign tactic."

Both Trailhead and its offshoot, Colorado Citizens for Justice, are so-called 527 groups, named for their designation in the Internal Revenue Service code. They are allowed to raise unlimited amounts of money, but prohibited from coordinating efforts with a candidate's campaign.

Dreyer said Trailhead had to create the new identity - Coloradans for Justice - because the group's credibility is tarnished after it was forced to withdraw misleading attacks ads. It's also been criticized in the news media for issuing bogus, "sleazy" attacks.

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