Some legal ethics experts say it's not hard to find fault with a lawyer buying a laptop computer from a stranger in a parking lot, as former Denver City Attorney Larry Manzanares claims he did.

But these same scholars say the ethics issues posed by the state court administrator requesting that no charges be filed over the stolen state-owned computer that wound up in Manzanares' possession is a tougher call.

Manzanares, a former Denver District Court judge, resigned on Feb. 27, less than two months after he was sworn in as city attorney, after an anti- theft device on the computer led to its discovery in his possession.

He told investigators that he purchased the laptop, valued at $1,579, from a man in a parking lot one block south of city hall.

A special prosecutor from the Jefferson County district attorney's office is investigating. Prior to the incident becoming public, State Court Administrator Gerald Marroney's office asked Denver police "that no prosecution take place at this time."

Buie Seawell, chairman of the department of business ethics and legal studies at the University of Denver, said that even if the case turns out not to be a violation of the law, buying a computer under such circumstances was a bad decision.

"You could argue from an ethics point of view that he knew or should have known that it was more likely than not that these were goods that the seller did not have legal title to," Seawell said.

As a lawyer, Manzanares should have known that, Seawell said.

On the question of the court administrator declining prosecution, Seawell said he could not offer an opinion.

"I don't know what factors the state court administrator took into account," he said. And the mere request not to prosecute does not stop the prosecution, he noted.

"That isn't his (Marroney's) choice; it's just his opinion," Seawell said. "As for the ethics of saying, 'Let's not make a felony out of it,' he may know some mitigating circumstances that we don't know."

Alec Rothrock, a lawyer who specializes in legal ethics, said he saw nothing wrong with the state court administrator's action.

"People have their own reasons for not wanting to prosecute charges," Rothrock said. "I don't think there's anything wrong with the court administrator deciding not to press charges."

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