Nottingham Resigns

A series of sexually charged allegations over the past year, including a recent claim by a prostitute that Chief U.S. District Judge Edward W. Nottingham Jr. had asked her to mislead judicial investigators about their weekly trysts, prompted Nottingham to resign his lifetime commission Tuesday.

"He is deeply remorseful for his actions," Nottingham's lawyer wrote in a public statement that didn't specify exactly what those actions were or whether any of the publicized anonymous claims are true. "He is also embarrassed and ashamed for any loss of confidence caused by those actions and attendant publicity and sincerely apologizes to the public and the judiciary."

Nottingham submitted his resignation to President Bush and said it had become clear that leaving the bench was the only way to put the matter behind both him and the court where he had worked for almost 19 years.

The resignation came as Chief Judge Robert Henry of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was in the midst of investigating Nottingham for misconduct.

Henry, in a statement of his own, acknowledged for the first time the breadth of the investigation, which began last fall after a complaint arose from testimony in Nottingham's divorce case about how he spent thousands of dollars in one night at a Denver strip club.

Since that initial complaint, 9News has reported that Nottingham's name emerged as a client in an investigation of a Denver prostitution ring and that a prostitute had complained to the 10th Circuit that Nottingham had asked her to mislead judicial investigators about their relationship. The prostitute's identity remains secret.

The Denver Post