DENVER -- Gov. Bill Owens met privately with the president of the University of Colorado on Friday and regents for school planned an emergency meeting to address allegations that the football program enticed recruits with sex parties.

The governor, who has demanded that the Boulder school provided a safe environment, said he believes university officials are taking positive initial steps, which he did not disclose.

But he also said more work is needed. And after meeting with university President Betsy Hoffman, he said "the people of Colorado must receive a candid accounting of the facts."

University of Colorado regents will meet within 10 days to discuss claims that football recruits were offered sexual favors to enroll, officials said Friday.

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Regents Chairman Peter Steinhauer said he hadn't set a date yet but the meeting would focus on allegations that female students were raped at off-campus sex parties held for the recruits.

Gov. Bill Owens demanded that the university take action.

"Women are not recruiting tools," Owens said Thursday after the disclosure of the charges, made by Boulder district attorney Mary Keenan in testimony for a civil rights lawsuit.

"We've started addressing those issues and we appreciate his thoughts on this," Steinhauer said.

Regent Jim Martin, a lawyer, said he had asked to see all depositions filed by alleged victims and others involved in the case, hundreds of pages in all.

"I think there is a direct parallel" to what has happened at the Air Force Academy, said Martin, referring to allegations that the culture at the elite school near Colorado Springs fostered sexual assaults.

"They both involve gender. They both involve taking advantage. It is all about money, sex and power," Martin said, adding that athletes are often led to believe they are above the law.

However, one CU Regent questioned the timing of the allegations, given that national signing day is next week. Feb. 4 is the day when high school senior football players notify universities about which school they plan to attend.

Barnett, Athletics Officials Deny Charges

University athletics officials angrily denied the charges.

"I've been an educator for 33 years and much of my teaching and emphasis is about character," CU coach Gary Barnett said. "Neither myself nor any of my coaches have ever encouraged or condoned sex as part of the recruiting process, period ... The accusation is wrong, inaccurate and false."

Keenan's statement was made during a deposition for a civil lawsuit against the school -- a lawsuit that the school is working to get dismissed. The school filed paperwork Friday to get the suit thrown out.

The lawsuit centers on a 2001 off-campus football recruiting party at which three women say they were raped by players or recruits.

Keenan said while she was investigating the alleged rape, a school official told her that stopping the sex parties would put the team at a competitive disadvantage and that Barnett and CU's athletic director were aware of those parties, something Barnett vehemently denies.

"I feel that my professional and personal integrity has been attacked. I have been publicly accused of encouraging inappropriate behavior by my players. These accusations are not only inaccurate but my record and reputation over the past 33 years prove it to be a lie," he said, angrily.

Athletics director Dick Tharp called the claims "fantasy assumptions."

"I categorically deny any suggestion or intimation that we engage in or condone such reprehensible conduct as the use of sex to entice young recruits," Thorpe said adamantly, leaving a news conference without taking questions.

Owens Demand Review, NCAA To Look Into Recruiting Practices

Owens said he was shocked by the allegations and demanded a public accounting. He called on the university to take steps to reassure female students it will not tolerate a climate of sexual misconduct.

"I am calling upon each of you ... to provide a full, substantive and public disclosure of all the facts regarding the alleged abuses in the football recruiting program," Owens said in a letter to CU president Elizabeth Hoffman and the CU Board of Regents. "I also call upon you to reassure young women now attending the University -- and those considering enrollment -- that the university will not tolerate a climate of sexual misconduct ... The University is a world-class research institution that provides an excellent education to tens of thousands of young Americans. Its future can and should be bright. This allegation has the potential to darken that future. That is why this allegation must be fully and completely addressed."

He threatened, "If the university fails to act to restore public confidence, please be assured that I will take whatever steps are necessary to protect the integrity of the university."

CU provost Phil DiStefano issued a statement in response, which said, in part:

"We strongly dispute the claim that the university fosters an environment of sexual harassment or that sex is used as a tool in recruiting athletes. We do not now, nor have we ever, condoned sexual misconduct by students or prospective students, whether they are athletes or not."

The NCAA sets restrictions on entertaining recruits, though there is no definition of "excessive entertainment," spokeswoman Kay Hawes said.

Hawes said that a subcommittee on recruiting plans to review reports of problems in recent years to see if rules should be changed.

Hawes declined to say whether the NCAA was investigating the specific allegation against the CU football program. Should the university be found in violation of recruiting rules, it could face punishment including fines, probation and recruiting restrictions.

Several current students 7NEWS spoke with said they couldn't imagine a coach accepting this kind of behavior, and not have it catch up with him.

"If there was to be something condoned like that, attracting people for football through sex, that would just be the wrong step in advancing the university," said CU sophomore Helena Clements.

No Charges Ever Filed

No one was charged with the alleged rapes but four football players were charged with providing marijuana and alcohol to minors.

Keenan said she decided against assault charges because the men believed they had been promised sex at the party, making it difficult to prove rape beyond a reasonable doubt.

The lawsuit by one of the alleged victims, former student Lisa Simpson (pictured, left), accuses the football program of fostering an environment in which women routinely suffer sexual harassment.

Simpson and the other two women have agreed to have their names used publicly, to show others that rape victims have nothing to hide.

"Because my rape involved some very high profile people, there was no way to escape the media attention," Simpson testified earlier this week in front of the state Legislature while arguing for stronger rape shield laws.

Keenan, during a deposition in October, said she met with athletic department officials after a 17-year-old Niwot teen reported being raped during a recruiting function in 1997.

She said she met with officials more than four years later, after Simpson's allegation surfaced, and did not believe the university was taking her complaints seriously.

Reached by telephone after the university news conference, Keenan defended her testimony.

"I told the truth to the best of my knowledge," she said. "I stand by what I said at the time. I'm just a witness. A lot of people have been deposed. ... I didn't want to give a deposition. I was under subpoena to talk."

Former CU athlete Monique Gillaspie, who said she was raped by two football players after the 2001 party, praised Owens' stance and urged other women who "have fallen prey to CU football program misconduct" to step forward. She and her parents issued the statement through her lawyer.

In a Sept. 23, 2003, deposition with Simpson's attorney, Barnett said five or six of the men who were at the December 2001 party told him that Simpson handed them condoms before they went into a bedroom with four women.

"From that point on, it became group sex," Barnett said in the deposition.

He also said the players told him they put recruits and themselves in "a very inappropriate situation" involving alcohol and consensual sexual conduct.

Barnett also said he did not know of any recruiting changes that Keenan and other prosecutors had mentioned to university officials following the 1997 allegations.

In another deposition, campus police Officer Timothy Delaria described a separate 2001 party as "some kind of sex party for the recruits." He said recruits were shown a pornographic video and told that easy sex was a fringe benefit of playing at Colorado.

Delaria, discussing a police interview with a football recruit, said the recruit told officers, "They told us, you know, 'This is what you get when you come to Colorado."'

Keenan also said Officer Dan Spicely, who acted as a liaison between the football program and Boulder police, might have told coaches and players to meet before the investigation began.

"It gave (coaches and players) a chance to cover it up," Keenan said.

Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner said there was no known evidence Spicely interfered with the investigation.

If the allegations of sex parties are true, it would not be the first time a big university has engaged in such practices to entice recruits, said Richard Lapchick, director of Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society.

"It's happened over the years in other places, and that does not make it right in any of the places," he said.

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