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No More Sex in Public Bathrooms, By Court Order

How did this candidate for public office end up with a restraining order?

By Jonathan Shikes 

An Eagle County judge has ordered Muhammad Ali Hasan, a candidate for the Colorado House of Representatives, to stay away from his ex-girlfriend and former publicist, Alison Miller, and her three young sons. The Beaver Creek Republican is running in the ski-resort-heavy House District 56.

According to a March 3 restraining order, Miller has accused Hasan of repeatedly harassing her via text message and asking a sheriff's deputy to call her. She also charged that Hasan had disconnected her phone and hired a firm to crack the passwords to her three e-mail accounts — and admitted it to Miller in November. "He demanded I sign a waiver of liability so I would not sue him for doing so... leading up to him taking me to his attorney's office just two hours after I was released from the hospital and was ordered to bed rest and was on pain meds, anti-nausea meds," she wrote the court. "He demanded I sign the documents before he took me home."

Hasan is the wealthy son of Malik Hasan, a partially retired HMO executive and multi-millionaire, and Seeme Masan, a longtime Republican activist. He grew up in Pueblo and now lives in a 28,000-square-foot, $10 million mansion owned by the family outside of Vail. A charismatic speaker and flamboyant dresser, he is the founder of Muslims for America.

He and Miller began dating in the fall of 2007 and often spoke of their relationship at campaign stops. "This has been the best part of the campaign," Hasan told a Westword reporter last fall. "You find love when you are not looking for it."

The couple broke up on Valentine's Day, according to Rohn Robbins, Miller's attorney and host of a weekly radio show on KZYR-FM. Robbins won't comment on the falling-out beyond characterizing it as "a relationship gone bad." Miller had been in the hospital with a kidney infection, he says.

Hasan, who also declined to comment on the case, had said he planned to release a statement about the restraining order on Monday, but failed to do so. A hearing is set for March 19.

"He will have to deal with this," says Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams, who adds that it will be up to District 56 voters to decide if the case affects Hasan's candidacy. Representative Mike May, the Republican minority leader who's supported Hasan and helped organize a town-hall meeting in Breckenridge to promote his candidacy, did not return a call from Westword.