We are now well into the first year of
Mayor Michael Hancock’s final and desultory third term. Ugly high-density and
poorly constructed apartment buildings are still going up everywhere, while
parks and open space are destroyed and predatory bike lanes arise that severely
impede the flow of traffic in the city, making some neighborhoods far less
enjoyable and livable than just five years ago. The mayor continues to spend
much of his time in Atlanta, where he can engage in his favorite pastime,
chasing skirts, far from the scrutiny of the citizens he rules.
What is different in his Honor’s third term
is the 13-member City Council that acts like an actual city council and not
simply a rubber stamp Politburo for a tin pot dictator. Incredibly in the
entire time in office as mayor he has not vetoed a single piece of legislation
aside from his recent veto of a form of a pit bull ban, approved by the City
Council by a 7 to 4 margin. It will take nine votes to overcome the veto. Even
Governor Polis is opposed to the legislation. He shared a picture of him and
his pit bull on social media.
We don’t particularly like City Council
feeling the need to legislate various aspects of many people’s lives either,
but that is not the point. In his first two terms, the city council members
would not dare to pass anything that he did not approve of for fear of
retribution. Perhaps the sudden signs of political courage are a result of Mr.
Hancock being a lame duck mayor who can’t run for another term, unless, of
course, he pulls a “Bloomberg” at the last minute.
But we think it is more of the makeup of
the members of the present council. In 2015 the citizens of Denver elected four
potential rebel new council members — Wayne New, Rafael Espinoza, Kevin Flynn
and Paul Kashmann — who defeated the choices of the mayor and the high-density
developers. The citizens hoped and expected the new members to fight the good
fight but, in fact, nothing changed. Rafael Espinoza behind-the-scenes urged
and virtually begged his fellow council members to once, just once, stand up to
the mayor, but they simply would not.
The election last spring also brought in
four new potential rebel council members — Chris Hines, Candi CDeBaca, Amanda
Sandoval, and Amanda Sawyer — who most council observers expected to be
co-opted just like the 2015 class. But they greatly underestimated Ms. CdeBaca.
She had upset Albus Brooks who was not only the close friend and political ally
of the mayor’s, but the favorite to be the next mayor of Denver. A radical, she
wasted no time in informing the mayor that there was a new sheriff in town and
she was not going to be one more poodle council member.
Amanda Sawyer crushed another close ally of
the mayor, Mary Beth Susman, in District 5 in the 2019 election. She was viewed
by some as not having the grit of Ms. CdeBaca and perhaps far too dependent on
her political sisters from Emerge, a program that trains Democrat women for
local political office, and which helped her get elected in 2019.
But by and large Sawyer has demonstrated
that she is made of the right stuff. One of the problems with the prior
councils is they let the mayor’s staff and appointees push them around. The
mayor’s men and women had little or no respect for what they viewed as weak and
cowardly elected officials on the City Council.
Employees from Denver’s Department of
Transportation and Infrastructure (DOTI) were regularly showing up late for
meetings, leaving early and failing to provide information about projects.
After nine months of this type of conduct Councilwoman Sawyer had enough of it.
She went to Human Resources and the Mayor’s Office to complain that this
conduct was putting her constituents in danger. When they laughed her off, she
further indicated that she would vote against any and all DOTI projects until
the situation was remedied.
The mayor was shocked. He was simply
treating City Council members in the same manner he always had. He quickly went
to sycophantic Denver media to trash her, which they did. The DOTI Executive
Director Eulois Cleckley told the press that the whole matter “really boils
down to a personality conflict.” That is to say that Ms. Sawyer is very
difficult to work with, which would surprise anyone who knows her. Cleckley
went on to declare, “I was a little disappointed. Having tactics like this that
potentially can delay our services or projects. It actually hurts our ability
to do what’s right for the city and county of Denver.”
Ms. Sawyer said she felt she was being
attacked essentially for being a whistleblower. She declared “that this has
turned into a campaign to smear me so that this changes the conversation, and
that’s not fair.” She is of course right. Sawyer backed down about the voting
part, but she had placed a marker about how she expected to be treated on
behalf of her constituents.
Next time she needs to bring along a few of
her fellow council members who need to let the mayor’s personnel know that
Council members are the elected officials and not them. We await that day which
we hope will occur in the very near future.
Paula Bovo: Glendale City Council member and Mayor Pro Tem from 2010 to 2016. Partner in prominent Glendale law firm Bovo Law.
Todd Bovo: One of the top litigators in Glendale with Bovo Law.
Paula and Todd Bovo are one of Glendale’s
most prominent power couples. She was a council member and then Mayor Pro Tem
of the city from 2010 to 2016, with a publicly expressed aspiration to become
the governor of Colorado. He started one of the city’s most well known and
aggressive personal injury firms with offices in the penthouse of the Cherry
Creek Plaza at 650 South Cherry Street. They were married in 2009. Paula was
also an attorney and she became his legal partner in the Bovo Law firm. She
helped prepare cases for trial and he usually acted as lead counsel in court.
The couple were frequent guests at civic, social and charitable events in Glendale
and Denver.
Marriages, of course, can turn sour and the
circumstances can be greatly aggravated when the couple are also business
partners. For the Bovos it is now full out warfare in and out of court. She
publicly and in court pleadings alleges that he is a domestic violence
perpetrator against both her and the couples’ two children. He in turn
vigorously disputes those claims and asserts that she is a serial liar and
person who regularly betrays the trust of those around her.
Their allegations and counter allegations
have spilled over into public and professional arenas.
Court Documents
Public records show the Arapahoe County
Sheriff’s Department has responded to the Bovo home twice on domestic violence
calls. Both times officers left without arresting anyone, an unusual result in
these kinds of cases.
In a May 2017 incident Paula Bovo called
911 claiming her husband was destroying property inside their home. The report
indicates that she videotaped Todd “yelling and cussing” but adds “she stated
at no time did he threaten her or the kids and did not physically touch her… .”
Deputies left without making any arrests.
According to another Arapahoe County
Sheriff’s Report, Paula Bovo called 911 again in March 2019, saying, “She is
scared he (Todd) will hurt her.” Reporting officers say Paula told them Todd
said, “I’m going to kill you” and that he was “going to burn the house down.”
Officers say they talked with Todd on scene who denied making any such threats.
Officers noted the Bovos “both had conflicting stories” and that neither could
be confirmed. Responding officers wrote, “We could not substantiate that a
crime had occurred” and once again left without making any arrests.
Abuse allegations rose again in divorce
proceedings when Paula Bovo sought a restraining order against Todd Bovo. But
that was thrown out in a May 2019 decision by an Arapahoe County Judge who
ruled, “Based on the evidence and testimony presented to the court …. the court
hereby dissolves the temporary protection order as to all parties.” The judge
also cancelled a second hearing that had been set on the same allegations.
It is in those proceedings where the
accusations shift into Paula Bovo’s public and professional life. The Glendale
Cherry Creek Chronicle has obtained two subpoenas issued by Todd Bovo, one to a
prominent Denver attorney and the other to KCNC Investigative Reporter Brian
Maass for them to appear at the May restraining order hearing that was
subsequently dismissed by the Judge. In court filings, Paula claims the subpoenas
are Todd’s efforts to harass her. But he claims they go to the heart of her
credibility issues.
Alleged Assault On Boat
Boat At Cherry Creek Reservoir: Pictured is the boat owned by the Bovos which is at the center of the sexual assault allegations.
The attorney, who the Chronicle is not
naming, consulted with the Bovos’ law firm on a civil case in 2018. Todd says
in August of that year Paula told him she was meeting the attorney at the
couple’s boat docked at Cherry Creek Reservoir. She apparently bought several
bottles of wine for the rendezvous and the two of them cruised on Cherry Creek
Reservoir. Todd claims when she came home, she was extremely upset and crying
and claimed the attorney sexually assaulted her. Todd said she did not want to
call police but in later months frequently mentioned the alleged assault to
other people.
Mike Smith, a paralegal litigator who works
with both Paula and Todd Bovo at their law firm, said she had also told him the
attorney sexually assaulted her on the boat in the Cherry Creek Reservoir. “It
was a few days after she met (the attorney) at the dock at Cherry Creek State
Park and she was upset and finally expressed she had met (the attorney) there
and that things were okay for a moment but that he approached her and forced
himself on her, specifically sticking his tongue down her throat,” said Smith.
Smith continued and indicating that Paula told him she pushed the attorney away
adding that she appeared very upset as she told the story. “Emotionally you
could tell she was distraught, something was clearly bothering her, weighing
heavy on her,” said Smith.
Both Smith and Todd Bovo say Paula talked
about the alleged assault on other occasions and even told an investigative
reporter. KCNC’s Brian Maass interviewed Paula Bovo as a legal expert on an
unrelated story that ran January 31, 2019. Todd claimed Paula told him that
after the official interview ended, she told Maass the attorney sexually
assaulted her. Smith said she told him the same thing. “After the Brian Maass
interview, she said she had discussed it with Brian Maass and he now knew the
situation,” said Smith. “Just that she had told him the same story as far as
what happened at the dock, that Brian Maass now knew the story.”
Ceremony: Former Mayor Pro Tem Paula Bovo cuts the ribbon at Doctors Express on Colorado Blvd. (now called AFC Urgent Care) when it first opened.
Paula denies ever making such a claim. She
said, “(The attorney) never sexually assaulted me and I never said that to
anyone.” She adds, “And if anyone says I did they are not telling the truth.”
When the Glendale Cherry Creek Chronicle
contacted reporter Maass he said, “I’m not going to be able to help you out on
that.”
But Todd Bovo and Smith stand by their
stories, adamant that Paula made the sexual assault allegations on numerous
occasions.
Todd Bovo says it’s not right that someone
with Paula’s stature in the community can keep making what he calls false
allegations with potentially devastating consequences to him and others.
Show Cause Hearing
Paula Bovo’s professional credibility has
been questioned before. In a July 2019 Federal Court order by Judge William
Martinez regarding a civil case Paula was involved in, the judge took the
unusual step of threatening to sanction her. According to the court document,
Judge Martinez identified at least four instances in which Bovo “willfully
misrepresented the Complaint, either by making false assertions about the
contents of specific paragraphs or by asserting, without citation, that certain
things had already been alleged.” The Judge ordered Paula to “show cause why
she should not be sanctioned” for misrepresenting what was in the Complaint.
In September 2019 the Judge decided not to
sanction Paula, writing, “Ms. Bovo accepts responsibility for her actions and
displays what the Court finds to be genuine and appropriate contrition.” Ms.
Bovo withdrew from the case on February 17, 2020, along with Mr. Bovo.
The FBI
Collusion: A picture taken October 6, 2015, at Panera Bread on Colorado Boulevard north of Yale. At the back of the booth, left to right, are FBI Special Agent Kimberly Milka, and FBI Special Agent Jonathan Grusing; at the front of the booth, left to right, are the owners of Authentic Persian & Oriental Rugs, Nasrin Kholghy, Mohammad Ali Kheirkhahi, and Saeed Kholghy.
Todd Bovo asserts not only was Paula a
confidential source for negative stories about Glendale by Brian Maass while
she was the Mayor Pro Tem she also was a source for the FBI in connection with
an apparent FBI investigation involving the City of Glendale in early 2016.
An undercover FBI agent using the fake name
of “Charles Johnson” showed up in Glendale. He was posing as a private
investigator and knocking on the doors of citizens who made public comments
about a proposed development at Colorado Boulevard and Virginia. The residents,
who felt threatened and harassed reported “Johnson” to Glendale Police. Johnson
was carrying multiple motor vehicle licenses from different states. The police
arrested Johnson for failure to have a required private investigator license
but the charges were dropped when the FBI intervened demanding all charges be
dismissed. Johnson was apparently a top undercover agent who was outed during
the Bundy trial in Nevada where he claimed to be a documentary film producer
obtaining incriminating statements from the Bundy family members. The case
against Cliven Bundy was thrown out by Federal District Court Judge Gloria
Navarro for “flagrant prosecutorial misconduct.”
It was never clear what the FBI was
investigating in Glendale. However, Jonathan Grusing, a top special agent for
the FBI, was photographed with the principals of the Authentic Persian and
Oriental Rug Company who were demanding and suing the city to be able to build
a massive apartment building on the land on Colorado Boulevard and Virginia
Avenue. Todd Bovo says unbeknownst to other City Council members, Paula was
regularly meeting with the FBI during this time. He says he does not know what
she said but notes Paula was eventually forced to hire a criminal defense
attorney to represent her on the matter. According to a Fee Agreement dated
February of 2016 the attorney was hired to “provide legal representation of
Paula Bovo… in the pending investigation by the state and federal authorities
in the State of Colorado… pertaining to the investigation and any pending
charges related to Glendale municipal government activities.”
KCNC Investigative Reporter Brian Maass: Two people claim Paula Bovo says she told Maass about the alleged sexual assault on the boat at Cherry Creek Reservoir.
Whatever the FBI was looking into, the
investigation seems to have ended and the only person ever arrested was the
undercover FBI agent Johnson.
Reaction
Jeff Allen, COO of the Greater Glendale
Chamber of Commerce, who was on the City Council with Ms. Bovo, stated: “If the
former Mayor Pro Tem Bovo was acting as a source for Brian Maass for his
negative and unfair stories about Glendale and while secretly meeting with the
FBI without informing the City Attorney or her fellow council members, she
utterly betrayed our trust and I am, for one, ashamed of her.”
The Chronicle reached out to Ms. Bovo for
her response to the allegations and any other information she wished to
provide. In response she sent the following statement: “As a victim of domestic
violence and a mother of young children, I find it reprehensible that my
ex-husband and the Cherry Creek Chronicle have chosen to inflict more harm upon
me and my children by sharing my private life and story for the benefit of
revenge; due to ongoing lawsuits I cannot comment further.”
Todd Bovo noted: “It breaks my heart to see
the mother of my children and soon to be ex-wife continue to make allegations
that couldn’t be further from the truth. Paula’s claims are insulting and
offensive to the true victims of domestic violence. “
The next court date on the dissolution of the marriage of the Bovos is a four-day hearing for permanent orders scheduled to start June 23, 2020.
