Saying that “my bad judgment is a mistake that I own,” Denver city manager Michael Hancock apologized Wednesday for a debate remark explaining why he didn’t think his suggestive texts to a security detail officer amounted to sexual harassment.

The city manager’s statement came out shortly before the officer, Denver police Detective Leslie Branch-Wise, spoke out at a news conference aboard civil authority rival Jamie Giellis, charging that Hancock was “blatantly telling extra lies.”

Last year, Hancock apologized after Branch-Wise discharged a series of text messages he sent to her in 2012, during his first year in office. But they disagreed about whether the texts amounted to harassment.

Asked why during a Denver Post-hosted debate Tuesday night, Hancock suggested the discharged exchanges didn’t include some of Branch-Wise’s comments: “When you see the texts from Detective Branch-Wise, you see my texts,” he aforementioned, prompting outcries from the crowd. “The reason I aforementioned it wasn’t sexual harassment is because you don’t see the back-and-forth speech that occurred.”

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