City attorney Manzanares resigns

The Hickenlooper administration got a black eye last week when newly-appointed city attorney Lawrence Manzanares was found in possession of a stolen laptop.

Today, Manzanares resigned. According to the Denver Post:

Manzanares had been a finalist for the city attorney post at the beginning of the Hickenlooper administration, losing out to Cole Finegan. When Finegan moved to private practice last year, Hickenlooper said the Denver District Court judge came highly recommended as a successor. Manzanares was sworn in Jan. 4.

Later that month, Manzanares said, he met a man in a parking lot near city hall and bought a Gateway m280 laptop. On Saturday, Manzanares said he could not remember how much he paid for it.

The computer belonged to the very district where Manzanares had been a judge. And it was equipped with a tracking device designed to allow authorities to pinpoint the location of missing computers.

On Jan. 26, an official in the state court administrator's office reported the $1,579 computer stolen. He noted that the tracking software showed the computer had been used the day before.

Manzanares said he returned the computer as soon as police contacted him, noting that he had no idea it came from the court office.