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Deborah Sherman, the former 9News reporter whose departure from the station this past November powered up the rumor mill, has resurfaced as a spokesperson for the Douglas County Sheriff's Office. And what timing! Sherman says she started a part-time media consulting and media relations job there two days ago, just a day before news broke that the agency is investigating Denver Nugget Chris "Birdman" Andersen for Internet crimes against children.
Sherman jumped in on the story, giving interviews yesterday to newspapers and television stations, including 9News. Watch 9News's report below. "It was trial by fire," Sherman says. "That's how I like it, anyway. It's fun, and what a great group of people in the Douglas County Sheriff's Office."
Sherman says her departure from 9News was "a mutual parting of ways." In her words, "It was time for me to do something new, to try something else." Sherman now has her own business, Media Zone Consulting, Co. Among the services listed on the website are crisis management, social media strategy and reputation control. "It's a whole other life," Sherman says of her new business. "I love it, I love it. I'm very, very happy."
And what's it like to be on the receiving end of reporters' questions? "It's very different," she says, "but it's still being involved with what I love, which is investigations and detective work." Sherman won multiple awards for her investigative reporting.
She was personally involved in a case about a local doctor, Louis Hampers, against whom she won a permanent restraining order in 2010. Sherman also sued Hampers in civil court for harassing her after she broke a second date with him; that lawsuit has been settled. Hampers's lawyers have admitted that the doctor had a drug problem. He was recently sentenced to five years of probation for prescription drug fraud.
Here's the 9News video about Andersen in which Sherman appears.
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