Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Home › News › Local News

Report: Judge under scrutiny

Allegations raised involving escort service

Rocky Mountain News

Published March 8, 2008 at 12:30 a.m.

Text size  
U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham is the focus of a broadening investigation into allegations he "has brought disrepute to the judiciary.

Photo by Chris Schneider © The Rocky

U.S. District Judge Edward Nottingham is the focus of a broadening investigation into allegations he "has brought disrepute to the judiciary.

More Local News

More stories »

Chief federal Judge Edward W. Nottingham, who admitted to indiscretions at a downtown topless club, also may have been a client of a high- priced escort service, according to a television news report.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit is investigating Nottingham for judicial misconduct, according to 9News.

The judge allegedly was a customer of Denver Players, also known as Denver Sugar, which operated out of a four-bedroom home in the Commerce Park neighborhood and was raided and closed by Internal Revenue Service agents and Denver police in January, 9News reported.

Nottingham was the judge in the insider-trading trial of former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio, who was found guilty last April of 19 counts of illegally selling stock in April and May of 2001.

Nacchio's appeal of the guilty verdict was heard in December by a three-judge panel in the 10th Circuit, which has not said when it will rule.

John Holcomb, a University of Denver professor who watched most of the Nacchio trial, said that the allegations against Nottingham are "an ethical issue that should not affect (the appeal) in this case, but it's an ugly background."

Federal and local authorities spent more than a year investigating Denver Players at 1675 Fillmore St., according to federal affidavits that were unsealed last month.

A man identified as a chauffeur told 9News that he was responsible for driving prostitutes to meet their clients, including Nottingham.

Nottingham, who could not be reached for comment Friday, has acknowledged that he twice visited the Diamond Cabaret in downtown Denver.

Nottingham has said that his visits to the strip club were "private and personal matters involving human frailties and foibles."

Comments

  • March 8, 2008

    10:48 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    RobinHood writes:

    Everyone enjoys a good old-fashioned Republican sex scandal:
    -----------------------
    One of these pictures is of Paulie "I remember every [oral sex] I ever got" Walnuts. The other is of Chief Judge Edward J. Nottingham of the District of Colorado. See if you can tell which one is which:

    [photos -- they do look alike]

    You Can't Tell the (Denver) Players Without a Scorecard

    If you have a hard time telling, you're probably not alone. Both are irascible, sporting violent tempers. They're both the kind of guys who would run over little old ladies in wheelchairs. It could be argued that both have played the role of 'enforcer' for a crime syndicate (Nottingham presided over the inside trading prosecution of former Qwest CEO Joe Nacchio, who was the only telco kingpin who wouldn't cooperate with the Bush spying program). They're both dysfunctional. And they're both Republicans. But I repeat myself....

    The Sheriff of Naughty-Ham has been in trouble before, most notoriously in connection with his second divorce. During the support phase of that proceeding, he admitted that he spent over $3,000 one evening on his credit card at the Diamond Cabaret and Steakhouse (it's a strip bar; they have food to make it seem respectable) and was so drunk that he couldn't remember what he spent it on. (The ladies take their tips in cash, or so I am told.) Later in the year, after having parked in a handicapped parking space outside a local drug store (undoubtedly, to pick up some Viagra), he was confronted by a disabled attorney; he reportedly identified himself as a federal judge and threatened to have her arrested by U.S. Marshals, and was stupid enough to call 9-1-1 to document the incident. Yet, while lecturing Nacchio from the bench, he pontificated: "The law does not care about your station in life."
    ---------------------------------
    See the blog at http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/3/....

  • March 8, 2008

    10:51 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    RobinHood writes:

    The video is here. Our local CBS affiliate also reported late last month that the ladies would 'perform' regularly at the Denver Club -- an exclusive club whose one-hundred members include Phil Anschutz, Pete Coors (they were not accused of being there), and prominent local lawyers -- and that cocaine was regularly abused.

    The Sheriff of Naughty-Ham isn't the only Republican judge whose libido has gotten him into trouble as of late. Sixty-three-year-old Bush appointee Judge Robert Somma was arrested on suspicion of DUI while wearing a cocktail dress, fishnet stockings, and high heels. Mercifully, no photographs are available.

    If anyone tells you that federal judges need a pay raise, show them this picture: [of one of the escorts, scantily-clad]

    I've never been rich enough and hard-up enough to spend a bare minimum of $300 an hour for a hooker, but on a judge's salary (many only work part-time on the bench for full-time pay, moonlighting as law professors like Bush appointee Michael McConnell of the Tenth Circuit -- who teaches at three law schools in his "spare time"), it appears that you can treat yourself to some serious eye-candy.

    [same blog, putting it all together. Lots of good links.]

  • March 8, 2008

    11:56 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    peteSmith writes:

    What a fitting end to this petty tyrant's career. "Arrogance and bullying by individual judges expose the judicial branch to the citizens' justifiable contempt. The judiciary can only gain from being able to limit the occasions for such contempt." McBryde v. Committee to Review Circuit Council Conduct, 264 F.3d 52, 55 (D.C. Cir. 2001) (citing In re Certain Complaints Under Investigation by an Investigating Committee of the Judicial Council of the Eleventh Circuit, 783 F.2d 1488, 1507-08 (11th Cir. 1986))

    See http://www.knowyourcourts.com/Notting...

    The problem is that so many other judges are just like him but are either more careful in their extrajudicial lives or they don't have the same weaknesses. We need to have meaningful mechanisms for judging judges based on their temperaments, performance and discharge of the duties of the office, rather than relying on scandals to have them impeached.

  • March 8, 2008

    3:41 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    bronxs136 writes:

    What i'm really wondering about is why is Judge Nottingham's name the only one been released off this supposed prostution clientlee list. Why haven't the other prominent people been listed. Is this a campaign to smear his name and only his name. All of us want to see who the politicians , lawyers, doctors, professional athlete's, police personnel that may or maynot be married or in a very high position of authority are. Don't just publish one name that is grounds for a lawsuit just based on Slander or is this just a way to embarrass him as a Federal Judge in the hopes that the convicted scumbag Joseph Nacchio gets off and the hundred's of people that he screwed over won't get justice.

  • March 8, 2008

    8:27 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    RobinHood writes:

    Couldn't agree more. Problem is, the investigation is supposed to be ongoing, and the station probably doesn't have any way to corroborate the claims. If this story gets dropped, it is because the people who could be damaged have the juice to get it dropped.

  • March 8, 2008

    8:29 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    RobinHood writes:

    What's interesting is that this story has gotten NO traction on the wires.

  • March 13, 2008

    2:36 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    peteSmith writes:

    It is confirmed that the Tenth Circuit Judicial Council is, indeed, investigating Chief Judge Edward Nottingham. See http://www.knowyourcourts.com/Harring...