The death of Larry Manzanares has raised several sharp ethical questions about the news media and prosecutors for the way the case against the former Denver judge and city attorney was filed and covered.

Several friends and colleagues of Manzanares blamed the media in general, and the Rocky Mountain News in particular, for what they felt was sensational treatment of the fact that pornography was discovered on a stolen state court laptop computer found in his possession.

Others were critical of Jefferson County District Attorney Scott Storey, special prosecutor in the case, for including the pornography allegations in an affidavit filed to support charges of theft, embezzlement, evidence tampering, computer crime and official misconduct against Manzanares.

Manzanares resigned as Denver city attorney in February after news of the stolen laptop became public. He said he bought the computer from a man in a parking lot and did not know it was stolen.

The 50-year-old lawyer was found Friday under a bridge near the Highline Canal adjacent to Eisenhower Park, dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Denver police said. Just a few hours before, Manzanares had appeared in court on the charges.

Michael Canges, a Denver lawyer who was a friend and colleague of Manzanares, said he was appalled at the media's coverage of the criminal charges.

"He was a thoroughly decent human being who did not deserve the treatment he received from the press, particularly the Rocky Mountain News. It was disgusting," Canges said.

While Canges said he understands that the media had to cover the story, he said the prosecutor's office and the media placed too much emphasis on the adult videos.

"There is not a male over the age of puberty that has not - at some point or another - got into adult videos or that type of thing," Canges said.

He also was critical of the prosecutor's decision to hold a press conference to announce the charges.

"Calling a press conference was unnecessary. It was designed really to savage this man," Canges said. "At the end of the day, he's a public figure who at best committed the transgression of taking an item to which he wasn't entitled, with the value of $500 or $600."

Storey could not be reached for comment Sunday. He had been appointed special prosecutor in the case to avoid a potential conflict of Denver prosecutors reviewing it.

Rocky Mountain News Managing Editor Deborah Goeken defended the paper's coverage.

"Such a tragic death in such a high-profile case naturally invites scrutiny of the media and how we handled our responsibility to cover the story. We understand that," she said. "Judge Manzanares was an important leader in our community, a man of the law who had been charged with a crime. That was newsworthy, and we covered the developments as they unfolded, reporting on public documents and official statements.

"At the same time, we worked to present a more nuanced portrait of Judge Manzanares, talking to his friends and colleagues and reporting on their admiration and love for him and their concern about the pain he was experiencing during this challenging time in his life. We feel we reported fairly on this troubling story."

Bob Steele, who specializes in media ethics at the Poynter Institute, a nonprofit foundation in St. Petersburg, Fla., that offers journalism training, said he could not comment on the particulars of the Manzanares case, not having seen the coverage.

But in general, Steele said, reporters and editors have an obligation to be both fair and accurate in such stories.

"That is a traditional and non-negotiable starting point," Steele said.

Besides getting the story right, he said, newspapers also have to evaluate the tone of the story: how pictures are played, the number of stories written and the placement of headlines.

Rocky media critic Jason Salzman felt both the paper and other media outlets failed on those counts by playing up the pornography angle.

Salzman said he understands that once the 80-page arrest affidavit became public, the media were obligated to report on the pornographic material. But Salzman said he would have preferred that it had been mentioned "parenthetically" rather than highlighted.

Salzman also was critical of the prosecutor for "manipulating the media" by including the pornography references in the affidavit when it was not central to the theft charge.

Scott Peppet, a University of Colorado law professor who specializes in legal ethics, said he had not read the affidavit. But assuming prosecutors felt the pornorgraphy was vital to show intent or to prove an element of the case, they would be on reasonably ethical grounds, Peppet said.

Craig Silverman, former Denver prosecutor turned talk show host, said he felt a sense of sorrow and loss at Manzanares' death.

Silverman said he didn't want to take sides, but added that the anger toward the media and the prosecutor was understandable.

"There's a grief process," he said. "There's a post-traumatic phase going on that involves a good bit of disbelief and a whole lot of anger. It's not surprising that the anger is going in a lot of different directions."

ensslinj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5291

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