A former University of Colorado recruiting assistant has been indicted on charges of theft, solicitation of prostitution and embezzlement of public property in connection with a state grand jury probe of possible football recruiting violations at the school.
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Two of the counts against Nathan Maxcey are felonies and the solicitation charge is a misdemeanor.
The indictments, handed up Friday, were announced Tuesday by state Atty. Gen. Ken Salazar.
The grand jury investigation was an outgrowth of allegations by Boulder District Atty. Mary Keenan that sex and alcohol were used to lure recruits to the Colorado football team.
On Feb. 27, Gov. Bill Owens directed Salazar to investigate the allegations. Salazar assigned the investigation to the grand jury and a squad of prosecutors.
Much of the grand jury investigation centered around allegations by escort service manager Pasha Cowan. She claimed that in the fall of 2002, Maxcey paid more than $2,000 to arrange sex for young men at the Omni Interlocken Hotel in Broomfield.
Among Maxcey’s duties was to pick up recruits and take them to the Omni, where they stayed during their visit.
She said she provided escorts paid for by Maxcey to “very young, very athletic men” at the Omni over a 45- to 60-day period.
Maxcey told The Denver Post he had done nothing wrong.
“I’ve said the same story all along,” Maxcey said. “I said it before, I said it since, and I’ll continue to say it: I never paid for prostitutes for recruits.”
Salazar, in a press release, said the Maxcey indictment was the only criminal indictment issued by the grand jury in connection with the investigation.
The embezzlement of public property count claims that in late December 2002 and early January 2003 Maxcey used his university cell phone to place 43 calls to a dating chat line for a total of 3,254 minutes.
The cost to the university was $505.20 in cell phone over-usage, the grand jury said.
The indictment said Maxcey was warned by Colorado that the calls were unacceptable. But despite that, the grand jury said he called the chat line 47 more times for a total of 2,688 minutes, resulting in charges of $537.76 to the university.
The theft count, the most serious of the charges, claims that Maxcey stole “cellular phone minutes” that belonged to Colorado, using the minutes for personal use.
The grand jury refused to indict Maxcey, 28, for pimping. That charge had alleged that Maxcey would call Cowan and “schedule appointments” for other men with girls Cowan utilized as prostitutes.