Mr. Potter found a short clip about Douglas Meester, an Air Force Academy sophomore accused of rape, a claim stemming from a drunken night with a classmate. “I called the family and had three months of conversations with the alleged rapist’s father,” Mr. Potter said. “In the court of public opinion, locally and nationally, this kid was being presumed guilty. And I thought, ‘Well, O.K., let’s take a look.’ The more I got into it, what became evident to me—in my opinion, at least—was that this kid was innocent.”

The magazine describes the article as:

In its awards-ceremony bios, ASME will describe the piece, which is nominated in the reporting category, this way: “Denver’s 5280 magazine sent Maximillian Potter to cover a rape at the Air Force Academy. Instead, through dogged and painstaking reporting, Potter uncovered an Academy plot to scapegoat a cadet and ‘prove’ it could ‘get tough’ on a crime it had largely ignored. 5280’s reporting exonerated the cadet and led to high-level dismissals.”

But, there is so much more to the story behind it. After Men's Journal, which originally had commissed the piece, backed out, and Rolling Stone wasn't interested, Maximillian approached Dan and 5280.

Mr. Potter had responded to a Mediabistro listing for a senior writer job at an obscure Colorado magazine. Mr. Brogan, who had maxed out his credit cards in 1993 to start 5280, was looking for a serious investigative journalist. When Mr. Potter explained his trials with the Air Force Academy piece, Mr. Brogan agreed on the spot to run it—even though his magazine had no lawyer on retainer to vet it. “Conduct Unbecoming” ran in the February/March 2004 issue.

... Mr. Potter choked up when he talked about the risk that Mr. Brogan took in publishing that piece. A few months ago, he said, a government subpoena landed on his desk, demanding his notes from the story in connection with another alleged rape case. “Dan Brogan didn’t blink,” he said. They rebuffed the subpoena, hired a pricey lawyer and won.

Maximillian's second award-winning article, Private Stites Should Have Been Saved, followed the same route. Again, from the Observer:

While working on the Meester story, he said, he learned about Army Pvt. Nolan Stites, a Colorado Springs native who entered basic training in the summer of 2000. Weeks after starting, Mr. Stites showed signs of serious depression. After some time on suicide watch, Mr. Stites threw himself from a third-story window.

Mr. Potter tracked down Richard Stites, the boy’s father. His son, Mr. Stites said, had been berated, isolated and misdiagnosed. The writer went to the family’s house and watched as the boy’s parents unrolled a quilt they’d stitched out of their son’s old T-shirts. Mr. Potter cried right there in the living room, he said.

After Men's Journal and Rolling Stone declined the article, Maximillian sent it to Dan and 5280.

Mr. Brogan, Mr. Potter said, was the “anti-them, the anti–New York magazine editor.” So he gave the second piece to 5280, moved his family to Denver and put Manhattan behind him....“In truth,” said Mr. Brogan, “I think the public would have been better served if both of those pieces had run in magazines with the kind of readership and circulation those guys have. But I was thrilled to publish them.”

Since the award announcements, 5280 is getting a lot more resumes. Maximillian, while grateful for the vindication, says:

It’s frustrating. I’m not an anomaly. There are a lot of talented writers trying to do exactly those sorts of stories, and they’re not getting the chance.”

***********
My last e-mail from Dan was this morning at 9:00 a.m. while he was on the train to the B-concourse of Denver's airport, en route to Hawaii for Spring Break with his wife and son. I had just emailed him the news of the outcome of the Lisl Auman decision. While on that 60-second train ride, using his Treo, he put up a post on 5280 letting readers know about the decision and linkng to my TalkLeft coverage.

Here's hoping for some more Dan Brogans - hands-on, talented publishers who are journalists in their own right, willing to trust their writers and take a chance on material that MSM publications won't touch. I'm proud to be a tiny part of the 5280 family.