by Charles Bonniwell
More Trouble: The office of the Denver DA has opened a formal investigation into DPS Board Member Tay Anderson’s unlawfully soliciting and receiving gifts.
As reported in the May 2021 edition of the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle, a criminal complaint was filed on behalf of Campaign Integrity Watchdog by Matt Arnold. Arnold alleged that Anderson repeatedly violated C.R.S. Sec. 24-6-203 by soliciting and receiving, but not reporting, gifts totaling thousands of dollars. He did so through GoFundMe pages for everything from trips to Washington, D.C., to purported medical expenses from allegedly being pushed to the ground at the Colorado State Capitol during a protest. Anderson also solicited baby shower gifts on Target’s Baby Registry page.
After Anderson refused to answer intervention letters sent out to Anderson’s multiple addresses, Chief Deputy District Attorney at Denver DA, Joe Morales, reviewed the case again and assigned the case to Senior Criminal & Civil Investigator Kent Prose. In response, Anderson initiated an even more brazen scheme. He sent an email to his thousands of supporters declaring:
Campaign Integrity Watchdog had sent a similar complaint to the Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswald, who dismissed the same, and Anderson had celebrated that dismissal in an April 29, 2021 email. At a July 14, 2021, press conference located at Brother Jeff’s Cultural Center, Anderson announced he was returning to his full schedule as a board member of Denver Public Schools (DPS) notwithstanding that the investigation into claims of 60 plus young women that he had allegedly sexually assaulted or harassed had not been completed.
Capitol Incident: Anderson solicited gifts on a GoFundMe page for purported medical expenses stemming from allegedly being pushed to the ground at a protest at the state capitol on July 29, 2020.
DPS had appointed Investigations Law Group to look into all the claims against Anderson, including the one brought by Black Lives Matter 5280, and those referenced by Mary Katherine Brooks Fleming before the Colorado House Judiciary Committee on May 5, 2021.
Anderson claimed that the group had indicated that its investigation would take only 30 days but had taken longer. He also slammed the media indicating it was “complicit in the white supremacists’ attacks that have happened to my family.” He also asserted that he had contemplated suicide because of the hateful threats and comments.
The Denver District Attorney’s office has declined to indicate whether or not it has opened a separate investigation on Anderson regarding the claims of sexual assault and harassment.