Hancock Releases Phone Records; Multiple Restrictions In Place
DENVER (CBS4)- Mayor-Elect Michael Hancock has released at least five months worth of personal cell phone records in response to media requests for those records. The release follows media reports suggesting a link between Hancock and a now defunct prostitution business known as Denver Players/Denver Sugar.
Hancock has repeatedly denied patronizing the business or utilizing the services of a prostitute.
In an email to CBS4 Tuesday afternoon, Amber Miller, a press aide to Hancock, said the records would be made available Tuesday but with six conditions attached:
"We have received Michael's personal cell phone records. We will be making them available to CBS4 today only under the terms described below. Please let us know if your news organization agrees to these terms and we will provide you with the time and further access information.
• Reporters will be able to review Michael's complete, unedited and un-redacted cell phone records for March, April, May, September and October in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.
• Any reporting/writing will only involve numbers related to Denver Players/Denver Sugar and the allegations that Michael Hancock solicited prostitutes.
• Reporters will share with us the specific phone numbers and names they are looking for just prior to sitting down and reviewing the records.
• If there is a match, reporters will point out those numbers on the spot, with the understanding that no one leaves the room/contacts that number until the records review is complete.
• The records review will occur at the offices of Brownstein Hyatt Farber and Schreck.
There will be no photocopying, reproduction or republication of the records."
CBS4 News Director Tim Wieland rejected the offer Tuesday afternoon.
"We do have an interest in reviewing the unedited phone records," wrote Wieland. "However we will not conduct a review under the unusual conditions you have outlined."
The Denver Post and KUSA-TV agreed to the conditions and reported they reviewed Hancock's phone records Tuesday night. Both media organizations reported not finding any phone numbers linking Hancock to the prostitution business.
