Senate candidate Darryl Glenn explains arrest allegations

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Senate candidate Darryl Glenn explains arrest allegations

He says he blocked out painful childhood memories of domestic violence

By Peter Marcus Herald Denver Bureau

Friday, July 29, 2016 8:50 PM

DENVER – Republican U.S. Senate candidate Darryl Glenn says he was telling the truth when he said he was not arrested in connection with a domestic incident more than 30 years ago.

Glenn says he can’t remember being arrested on Nov. 20, 1983, in Colorado Springs, when he “got between” his mother and father after his father allegedly struck Glenn’s mother.

“The police were called. He claimed to the police that I hit him. I do not believe I ever hit him. My mother swears I did not hit him either, but it wouldn’t have been beyond him at the time to claim I did. I do not remember ever talking to a police officer. I certainly do not remember signing anything for the police,” Glenn said in a statement.

His explanation comes after Denver Post reporter Joey Bunch analyzed a police report and other documents that suggested that Glenn hit his father in the face.

The 1983 complaint has a signature of the name Darryl L. Glenn that has similarities to Glenn’s current signature, seen on recent campaign and other documents, according to the Post, which consulted with a handwriting expert.

In February 1984, the assault charge was dropped after Ernest Glenn, believed to be Darryl Glenn’s father, chose not to pursue the case. Ernest Glenn died in 2006.

“I think it’s likely that the police showed up and took everyone’s information,” Glenn explained in the statement Wednesday evening. “I think my dad initially wanted to press charges that night, and a report was filed. I know that a few weeks later my mother and I were called into a meeting in a judge’s chambers. He asked us a few questions, and then sent us home. That’s the last thing we definitively know.”

If the allegations and account are true, then Glenn, as an 18-year-old, was simply trying to defend his mother from abuse.

The issue is that Glenn and his campaign repeatedly said it had no knowledge of the incident. Glenn even suggested to reporters that the incident could have involved another Darryl Glenn, or his dead half-brother, Cedric.

The Glenn campaign would not make him available to answer reporters’ questions, including a request by The Durango Herald on Wednesday.

“If you’re going to be a major party candidate for the U.S. Senate, you need to be ready for this,” said Eric Sondermann, a well-known Colorado political analyst. “The first opposition research you always want to do is on yourself, so you know what the other side has, then you want to be completely ready to respond and get ahead of this story as opposed to being a victim of this story.

“I thought the statement put out yesterday was a very, very powerful and well-done statement, but it was two days too late.”

Glenn said further details were revealed to him after speaking with his mother in the past week. He said it was the first time they spoke of the incident in 32 years.

“When you grow up in a violent home, the fights, the screaming, the pain all blur together,” Glenn said. “To survive, you block as much of it out of your head as you can in the moment. You try to forget it going forward.”

He added that he has never been handcuffed or fingerprinted, and that he has never appeared in court as a defendant.

Glenn also took the opportunity to highlight the crisis of domestic violence, pointing out that the incident in 1983 was one of many between his parents.

“We have to do so much better,” Glenn said. “We have to stop the cycle of violence affecting so many of our communities. We have to love each other.”

pmarcus@durangoherald.com

Darryl Glenn’s statement

July 27, 2016, Colorado Springs
I have been asked to respond to allegations about a misdemeanor charge from over 32 years ago.
I am going to say a lot here, but I want to say a few things up front:
1. I told the truth when I said I have never been arrested. I have never been handcuffed or fingerprinted. I have never appeared in court as a defendant.
2. I do not remember much about the night of Nov. 20, 1983. I understand that my dad made a complaint against me, but it was dropped nearly immediately – which is why I never knew about it.
3. Like a lot of Colorado families, we had to deal with domestic violence growing up.
Family Context:
I understand why some people might say, “How can he not remember something like this?”
I want to do my best to explain that: the painful truth is that my parents’ marriage was violent. This was not the first night my father attacked my mother, and maybe more sadly, this wasn’t the worst time it happened – not even close.
When you grow up in a violent home, the fights, the screaming, the pain all blur together. To survive, you block as much of it out of your head as you can in the moment. You try to forget it going forward. What happened that night was one in a long series of incidents between my parents. In that sense, it was not really memorable.
November 20, 1983
Here’s what I do know now about that night: My father hit my mother, and I got between them to try and protect her. The police were called. He claimed to the police that I hit him. I do not believe I ever hit him. My mother swears I did not hit him either, but it wouldn’t have been beyond him at the time to claim I did. I do not remember ever talking to a police officer. I certainly do not remember signing anything for the police.
Trying all these years later to piece together what we learned this week, I think it’s likely that the police showed up and took everyone’s information. I think my dad initially wanted to press charges that night and a report was filed. I know that a few weeks later my mother and I were called into a meeting in a Judge’s chambers. He asked us a few questions and then sent us home. That’s the last thing we definitively know.
I only have these details now because of what my mother told me this past week. In fact, this was the very first time we’d spoken about that evening in the 32 years since it happened. It’s probably hard to understand this unless you grew up in the kind of environment that I did.
This was a very hard period for my dad and I. We barely spoke in the years that followed. With that said, I am deeply grateful that towards the end of his life we were able to reconcile.
Years later, when a reporter asked me if I had ever been arrested, I said no because I honestly did not remember this event. When I expressed a belief that I had never been arrested, I was being honest.
Summary:
I did not plan to talk about the violence I grew up with in this campaign. I did not want to put my mother through reliving the agony of this period in our lives, and honestly, I did not want to have to relive it myself. I do not like thinking about this time in our lives. I do not like talking about it.
Over the last day or so, Mom and I both have shed a lot of tears talking about that night, trying to make sense of what happened. I wish I had done more to protect her. She wishes she had done more to protect me.
I want to use this moment to remind people that our family’s story is not unique. In Colorado, more than 17,000 people are victims of domestic violence every year.
We have to do so much better. We have to stop the cycle of violence affecting so many of our communities. We have to love each other.
These are painful memories for me, but I am blessed. I got free of the violence. My dad and I were able to rebuild our relationship before he passed away.
As a kid, there was not much I could do to stop the violence in our home. When I got older, as a father, I did everything I could to raise my children with a father that loved them, protected them and made them feel safe.
In our family, we’ve stopped the cycle of violence. I pray the same for other Colorado families confronting abuse in the home. They need to know they are not alone, that they do not need to be ashamed, and that there is help for them.