DENVER -- A grand jury heard closed-door testimony Friday regarding the sexual assault and recruiting scandal at the University of Colorado.

One of the witnesses, a former escort service employee, claims that a university employee paid that escort service to provide sex to young men at a hotel where football recruits stayed during campus visits. A report by the independent panel investigating the CU recruiting scandal said a former CU recruiting employee spent $2,000 in cash on an escort service.

The employee, Nathan Maxcey, insists the service was for him and no one else.

The grand jury will look into where his money came from.

This is the biggest step yet toward criminal charges in the 4-month-old scandal because grand juries have the authority to bring indictments -- a power that two other recruiting investigations have lacked.

The panel met for about 2.5 hours to hear testimony and then adjourned. It will meet again June 11, bailiff Don Colaizzi said. One of the three witnesses left with a coat over her head.

Pasha Cowan, the former manager of the Best Variety escort service, has said she was hired to go to a Broomfield hotel where football recruits are often housed.

Attorney General Ken Salazar, at the governor's request, has been investigating whether criminal charges are warranted in a scandal that includes allegations of sexual assault and questions about the use of university funds.

Last week, Salazar said no charges were warranted in nine alleged assaults by football players or recruits, citing evidentiary concerns and the reluctance of the women to go forward with the cases. The allegations date to at least 1997.

Earlier this week, a Board of Regents investigative commission accused university officials of failing to properly oversee the athletics department but concluded they did not condone any misconduct.

Some commission members, however, complained they lacked the subpoena power necessary to get answers they were looking for. The commission also urged the attorney general to look into the circumstances surrounding Maxcey, a Colorado recruiting aide from June 2002 to July 2003.

According to the commission, three call girls for Best Variety say Maxcey paid them at least $2,000 in cash over a 45-day period "and arranged sex for other young men" at the Broomfield hotel.

Maxcey's duties included picking up recruits and checking them in at the hotel, the Omni Interlocken.

A recent university audit found Maxcey made nearly $1,200 worth of calls to an escort service and a chat line from his school-issued cell phone. He has repaid the university some $900.

Director of football operations David Hansburg in February said Cowan told him about Maxcey's sexual liaisons during a call in which she asked for a job. According to Hansburg, Cowan said, "I'm not trying to blackmail you."

That same month, Hardbodies Entertainment Inc. of Denver, said athletes at Colorado and universities around the country had been paying its strippers to entertain recruits for years. Company president Steve Lower said then that his strippers had been hired for Colorado recruits as recently as two weeks earlier.

On Friday, Lower said he was told by the regents' commission he would probably be subpoenaed to appear before the grand jury.

Investigators, Lower said, are interested in who paid for strippers at parties for football recruits.

"The coaches didn't pay for this, it didn't come from anything but just the guys pooling their money together," Lower said. "I think after 20 years, I can figure that out. You put 20 guys in a room and it's not hard to come up with $250. You can come up with what you need, whether it's food or strippers."

According to the commission, the university provides a $30-per-day entertainment stipend to player-hosts for unstructured activities such as movies or bowling.

University President Elizabeth Hoffman is reviewing the report and plans to make recommendations to the regents by the end of the month.

Hoffman also plans to decide by then on the future of head football coach Gary Barnett, who has been suspended since Feb. 18 for remarks he made about at least one of the women who said they were raped by players or recruits.

Still pending are federal lawsuits filed by three women who say they were raped by recruits or players at or just after an off-campus party in December 2001. Boulder County prosecutor Mary Keenan's allegation that the school uses sex and alcohol to entice recruits -- made in a deposition for one of the suits -- helped spark the scandal earlier this year.

The lawsuits accuse Colorado of failing to protect the women under federal Title IX gender equity law. They seek unspecified damages.

Two of the women won a victory in court Friday when a federal magistrate granted them the right to amend their original complaint to include material given in recent depositions by school officials and others.

Additional Resource:

The report was posted on the commission's Web site.