Where is Colorado’s Spitzer-like Scandal?

Elliot Spitzer’s career is exploding in New York. But even before it was revealed the soon-to-be-former governor had repeatedly utilized the services of a super-duper high-priced escort service – prostitutes with Emperors Club VIP reportedly charge as much as $5,500 per hour – Colorado has been at the cusp of its own escort scandal with an on-going grand jury probe of Denver Players/Denver Sugar. IRS investigators raided a house operated by the local escort service in January, seizing appointment books, financial records and a register of client names.

As the priciest “adult service provider” in town, Denver Players/Sugar catered to wealthy and powerful men. According to several former employees, this included politicians, sports stars and CEOs. So far, the list of client names has not been released, but local television media have been feverishly snipping around the edges. One former escort did an anonymous interview with CBS4’s Brian Maass in which she described raucous sex parties at the exclusive Denver Club with a hilarious anecdote of hookers dancing around in Mayor Hickenlooper’s robe that had the word “Hick” embroidered onto the back. Last week, 9News reported that Chief U.S. District Judge Edward “Naughty” Nottingham was one of the names on the list being investigated (not quite a bombshell shocker given Naughty’s past behavior, but we’ll take it anyway.)

Spitzer’s shenanigans went public after it was leaked to the New York Times that FBI wiretaps recorded him making reservations for an extra-marital rendezvous. Right now, the Denver Police Department and federal authorities are juggling several Freedom of Information Act Requests for the release of the Denver Players/Sugar A-list. In Colorado, we like to take our scandals niiiice and slow. Oh, yeah.
-– Jared Jacang Maher