Judge asks why state senator was not prosecuted

A judge has ordered the Denver district attorney to explain why he decided against pursuing possible ethics violations by a Colorado state senator.

District Attorney Mitch Morrissey has until June 23 to give Denver District Judge Norman Haglund a written explanation of his decision not to prosecute Sen. Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, for allegedly using money from a GOP political action committee to create a Web site for the minority office.

Under Colorado law, it's a misdemeanor to use private funds to pay for public functions, said Chantell Taylor, director of Colorado Ethics Watch.

Haglund's order came Tuesday, a week after the watchdog group filed a petition with the court against Morrissey.

Colorado Ethics Watch had asked Morrissey to take action against Senate Minority Leader McElhany a year ago, Taylor said.

"District Attorney Morrissey's conduct has been most egregious because it's taken him well over a year to do nothing," she said. "We think that's utterly unacceptable. The public has the right to expect more from its elected officials."

In April 2007, the ethics group gave Morrissey information concerning McElhany's possible use of a $2,700 gift from a private political committee to defray the cost of creating www.ColoradoSenateNews.com for the Senate minority office. McElhany also failed to report the gift to the secretary of state as required by law, the ethics group said.

District attorney A spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough said Wednesday that the judge's order was a routine part of the process put in motion by Taylor's group. A deputy district attorney will prepare a response to the court, she said.

"Our initial review did not find a criminal matter to investigate," Kimbrough said. "We told Ms. Taylor last August that an investigator from our office would look into it further and that was done."

Additional investigation failed to justify a full criminal inquiry, she said.