Complete Colorado‘s Todd Shepherd has uncovered a new piece of information in the puzzling double standard in Denver Democratic District Attorney Mitch Morrissey’s handling of threats made by Richard Wiscomb against Republican Secretary of State Scott Gessler and Democrats who have received similar threats, such as Sen. Andy Kerr.

According to Shepherd’s investigation, the DA’s office maintained that no law had been violated.  But, the so-called “letter of declination” authored by Deputy District Attorney Greg Long explains the rationale behind the office’s failure to prosecute. The summation of the letter reads:

“I did discuss several city charges which Detective Csikos sent me with Robin Whitely, the head of our appellate section, to see if they would be any more viable than state ones, but we concluded that they suffered from the same deficiencies as the state ones because of the manner in which Wiscomb communicated his feelings.  There do not appear to be any actionable criminal charges against Wiscomb at this time.”

Essentially, according to Shepherd, the language used by Wiscomb was simply offensive not threatening because Wiscomb didn’t use the first person and didn’t call Gessler directly.  He did, however, claim to know where Gessler lives, which may actually be scarier and more threatening. While Wiscomb said “somebody should put a bullet in [Gessler’s] head”, Wiscomb didn’t specifically threaten himself to do so.  Um, still scary, and quite threatening in our view.

But, was Long’s analysis accurate, and more importantly, was he abiding by a double standard?  Let’s compare the statements of Wiscomb and the man who threatened Kerr, David Cassidy.

Wiscomb (per the testimony of Gessler’s office): “[Wiscomb] said Republicans should be shot in the head…people know where the Secretary’s family lives.”

Cassidy (per the voicemail he left for Kerr): “Andy Kerr, you and the rest of the communist Democrats are going to regret what you’re doing. Either by ballots or by bullets we are going to get you out of office.”

It’s a fine line Long is walking in differentiating between threats against Kerr and Gessler.  Threats to public officials should be taken seriously, regardless of political affiliation.  Morrissey’s office not only has erroneously failed to prosecute Republican Scott Gessler’s case, but has pursued a trumped up ethics charge against Gessler.  Contrastingly, the same office is taking seriously (as they should) the threats against Kerr and other Democratic lawmakers.

We hope Morrissey isn’t seriously considering running for Attorney General of Colorado.  This miserable performance has shown that he’s not up to the task.