Cook was a familiar figure around the Taj. He showed up at commissioners' meetings to complain about county taxes, made the circuit of GOP breakfast get-togethers and had even met with Congrove in his office. This was significant, in Zinna's view; in addition to attacking him, ColoradoWacko also made a point of praising Congrove: "If you had to leave the country for a year, or longer, you could trust Jim with your life savings and your wife. Upon your return they would all be in tact [sic]."
Congrove had encouraged Cook to apply for the job of county information technology director, but he didn't get the position. Cook described himself as a "sovereign American" and claimed that the court system didn't have authority over him. Zinna sued him anyway.
anthony camera
Free screech: Mike Zinna delivers his daily webcast from a studio at the Five Points Media Center.
tony gallagher
Confidentially yours: The investigation of Zinna by Daril Cinquanta (left) sparked another investigation of possible misuse of funds by Jefferson County Commissioner Jim Congrove (right).
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Cook claimed not to know who had hired him to set up the website. In a deposition, he described finding a package at his door one evening that contained $200 in cash, documents about Zinna and a request to launch ColoradoWackoExposed. He said he created the website, then returned the original documents to the source and handed over control of the site through the same second-rate-spy-thriller means of communication.
Zinna has yet to make a criminal complaint about the raid on his e-mails two years ago. "It's coming," he says. "I just don't want to see another investigation result in no charges."
Ironically, Zinna's daily webcast (on zinna.com) no longer deals with county or even state issues. He says he prefers to talk about national issues and doesn't want to further complicate the ongoing litigation. Several other players in the Taj intrigues of the past few years have changed their focus, too.
In November 2006, Duncan Bradley was informed by his supervisor that he had fifteen minutes to clean out his office. He gave an exit interview that blasted various staffers in the county attorney's office and questioned their competence. "They consider the elected officials to be short-timers," he said. "Then they had a county commissioner show up who did not want the job to begin with but got talked into it. So he starts asking questions about how money is spent and what is it spent on. They see him as an enemy.... Guys like Jim Congrove and me are not motivated by money or position."
The commissioners authorized an audit of the county attorney's office, which some regarded as payback for Bradley's departure. (Congrove denies this.) County Attorney Hutfless protested the audit, calling it a waste of time and money. When Congrove supplied Hutfless's confidential memo to the press, Hutfless resigned — but not before a heated confrontation with Congrove at a final board meeting, during which each man called the other a liar. Months later, Hutfless told the CBI agents that he was "sick of Congrove not doing the right thing" and had resigned because the stress of the relationship was overwhelming.
Treasurer Paschall lost his bid for re-election in 2006. Shortly before leaving office, he approved a $25,000 bonus for his aide, Kathy Redmond — and was promptly indicted for allegedly telling Redmond to split the money with him. At his trial for attempted theft last February, Paschall unveiled a peculiar defense: He was only kidding around about a kickback, see, but Redmond went to her good friend Congrove, who went to the police, who arranged for Redmond to tape incriminating conversations with Paschall.
"We are here because Jim Congrove hates Mark Paschall with an undying passion," Paschall attorney David Lane told the jury. The enmity, he suggested, had to do with Paschall's refusal to cooperate when Congrove demanded to know what he'd told the grand jury that was looking into Congrove's loan arrangements.
The jury acquitted Paschall of the theft charge but failed to reach a verdict on a charge of improper compensation. A new trial on that charge is scheduled for next month. Congrove, who's accustomed to being blamed for all sorts of things in Jefferson County, has expressed utter bafflement at the notion that he's somehow responsible for Paschall's predicament. But the defense theory of a setup is one Zinna readily embraces. "I believe every word of it," he says.
Last January, Congrove announced that he won't be seeking a second term as commissioner. He's backing Faye Griffin, the county treasurer who unseated Paschall. Assessing his legacy will be no easy task — in part because Congrove himself declines to talk about how the battles with Zinna affected his job. "Ask me about that after I've left office," he says.
Zinna himself tried to explore the Congrove legacy in a deposition of the commissioner a few months ago. The room was packed with lawyers paid for by the county, the air filled with objections. Little of substance emerged, other than Congrove's repeated profession of the things he did not know.
Asked if he had memory problems, Congrove replied that he didn't know. Asked if was an honest person, he replied that he didn't know. Asked to name his accomplishments as county commissioner, he replied that he couldn't think of any. Asked if he believed in freedom of speech, he paused as the seconds ticked away — then asked if that was part of the First Amendment.
But there was one area of inquiry that required no fencing, one question that the commissioner could answer without hesitation.
"You don't like me, do you?" Zinna asked.
"I think you're as phony as they come," Congrove said.
