Last Thursday, Espresso Pundit’s Greg Patterson broke a story about the release of a list of “Joe’s” who have patronized a valley VIP prostitute ring known as the Desert Divas. The story on this actually went public when the Phoenix New Times wrote an article back on February 12th that seemed to go nowhere. Thursday that list of “Joe’s went public. Patterson explains that hew was able to walk into the Phoenix Police Department’s office of public records and obtain the list in a CSV file and it’s now online for the whole world to see.
Once Patterson posted the list at Espresso Pundit, he left it at that. (He even turned comments “off.”) The Phoenix New Times was quick to jump on his story and also posted a link to the list and spun the story as a heads up to valley wives who may want to see if their hubbies were on the list.
Until now, no names have been mentioned in writing. Saturday, I received several phone calls informing me that two well-know political operatives show up on the list. I verified this myself.
Since Saturday, I’ve sat on the story after hearing that Dennis Welch of The Arizona Guardian was not going to publish. Well, Welch went public on Sunday. Sean Noble also picked up on it today and even reprinted Welch’s article on his blog, Noble Thinking. And one of our own, “GOP Cannon” posted his/her take on it earlier today. So now I’m going to chime in on the story and what I know.
The first name which may come as a surprise is that of Charles Jensen, the founder and President of Politics on the Rocks. I spoke with Charles on the phone and he catagorically denied any involvement or association with Desert Divas or any prostitute or prostitution ring. According to Jensen, he rented one of his properties to someone he won’t identify earlier (in 2007) who probably was a client of the Desert Divas. That means that the list was actually based on addresses given to law enforcement by the Divas. That address was tied back to the owner, Charles Jensen, who did not reside there. When I spoke with Charles on Saturday, he said that he was obtaining legal counsel in order to chase down the actual evidence provided by the Diva to Phoenix PD (probably a police report or transcrpt). That attorney will also likely go after anyone who attempts to libel Jensen. So the key to the Jensen’s innocence hinges on whatever evidence the Phoenix PD used to create their list of “Joe’s.” I happen to believe Jensen and think that one of his renters was the “Joe.”
The other name that shows up on the list is lobbyist, G. Michael Williams of Williams & Associates. I spoke with Williams Saturday night and he knew nothing of the list and catagorically denied it. It even appears that Williams and Associates may not have even been at the address shown on the Diva List at the time that the alleged incident took place.
Having spoken to both gentleman, it appears that this is all a matter of mistaken identities tied to the addresses where the supposed acts took place. I’m going to take both men at their word especially since they appear to have alibis and attorneys.
Will this taint the GOP brand here in Arizona? I tend to doubt it. I also agree with the earlier post by GOP Canon. There are probably individuals in the GOP who will take advantage of this perception of a scandal and use it as leverage to advance their position of power in the party. That’s sophomoric, unethical and disgusting and it needs to stop.
