By Matt Masich, STATE BILL COLORADO
Chantell Taylor, the attorney who heads up Colorado Ethics Watch, has ruffled the feathers of some bigshots in state politics who she’s accused of ethical violations. Now her opponents are using the state Supreme Court’s attorney regulation system to return the favor.
We reported in September that Mike Coffman, the GOP former Colorado secretary of state who’s now a congressman, filed a grievance, a/k/a “request for investigation,” with the state Supreme Court’s Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel. Coffman accused Taylor of lying when she told the press he “technically violated state law” after the Independent Ethics Commission declined to sanction him. The attorney regulators threw out Coffman’s complaint last month.
Last week, Andy McElhany, former Senate Republican leader in the state legislature, filed a similar investigation request with attorney regulation. McElhany said Taylor broke the rules for lawyers by publicly “accusing me of committing a crime, at the same time she was involved in litigating that same case against me.” Ethics Watch had pressured the Denver District Attorney’s office to prosecute McElhany for using private funds to fund the Senate minority’s Web site, but the office chose not to prosecute.
McElhany said he wasn’t aware of the attorney regulation process until he heard about Coffman’s complaint.
“I think they ought to admonish this member of the bar. Clearly it’s a violation of the rules. I don’t know what those sanctions would be, but it certainly calls for something,” McElhany said. “She operates an organization that’s designed to be a left-wing attack group that’s secretly funded. She has misused the judicial process in an effort to continue political propaganda.”
For her part, Taylor thinks McElhany is the one misusing the judicial process. McElhany has no basis for accusing her of making extrajudicial statements because there was never a trial or even charges filed, she said. She sees a trend of politicians using spurious complaints as retaliatory “press hits.” Attorney regulation isn’t allowed to talk about requests for investigation unless it files an official complaint, but complainants are, and both Coffman and McElhany’s grievances were forwarded to reporter Steve Paulson of the Associated Press’ Capitol bureau.
“It’s shameful. The regulation counsel is not there to be a pawn in a person or a party’s political game,” Taylor said. “It really seems obvious to me with Mr. Coffman and Mr. McElhany, by going to the same reporter at the AP, that they are using this as a way to discredit me and discredit our organization. That’s not what the reg counsel is there for.”
Taylor said she expects the latest accusation against her will also be summarily dismissed. Regardless of the outcome, she said, Ethics Watch will keep its eye on politicians.
“These kinds of intimidation tactics are not going to slow us down,” Taylor said. “It’s a citizen’s right to scrutinize public officials’ actions and hold them accountable when they commit any kind of ethics transgressions.”