DAVE LIEBER The apology you never hear

I want to show you something extraordinary that I’ve never seen in 44 years of covering politicians as a newspaper reporter.

An apology from a political dirty trickster.

It only cost the victim in this case $150,000 to obtain it.

Let me show you what happened.

The star of this story is David T. Sorensen, 32, who was hired by one of the state’s top political consulting firms — Murphy Nasica — to be the field director for the 2016 re-election campaign of Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth.

Sorensen, who previously mostly worked for Democrats, knocked on doors and put up campaign signs for the Republican Geren. Sometimes Sorensen acted as Geren’s driver, too.

Geren comes from one of Fort Worth’s best-known families. His late father Preston was a prominent architect. His brother Pete was a congressman. And Geren owns Railhead Smokehouse, one of the city’s top barbecue joints. Charlie has served his northwest Tarrant County district in Austin since 2001.

Geren’s opponent in both the 2016 and 2018 Republican primaries was Bo French, a private equity investor.

In a nutshell, the story goes like this:

On the final day of early voting in 2016, Sorensen overheard a conversation involving Bo French talking about his children. He thought he heard that French’s 3-year-old son had suffered broken ribs while wrestling with his older brother. He thought he heard that the family took the boy to a chiropractor for treatment.

In his mind, according to his deposition taken later in a lawsuit filed by French, Sorensen thought that represented harmful neglect.

Sorensen filed an anonymous report of child abuse with Child Protective Services.

That night, while French and his wife were at a political fundraiser, Child Protective Services and Westover Hills police visited the family residence to check on the children’s welfare.

What actually happened? French explained to me last week that his 3-year-old son had a rib out of alignment, possibly from jumping on a trampoline. The family chiropractor fixed him up. That was it.

‘You weaponized CPS’

In his deposition in French’s lawsuit, French’s lawyer, Christopher D. Kratovil, put it succinctly to Sorensen: “You weaponized CPS.”

“Did you think that information could be used to gain a political advantage over Mr. French?” Kratovil asked Sorensen.

“It wasn’t about that,” he replied.

“What was it about?” the lawyer asked.

“I was just worried about a kid.”

Family cleared

The CPS report, usually confidential, became public as part of the lawsuit.

Excerpts: “Recently father was overheard saying that original victim had three broken ribs. ... It is unknown exactly why it is believed that father doesn’t plan to seek any additional medical attention for original victim.”

And this from the report, as told to CPS by Sorensen: “There have been rumors around town that father is abusive to mother. Additional details were not available. Mother has not been seen with any injuries. Father is running for office of some sort and has had some failed business ventures. Father is under a lot of stress. Additional details regarding the home environment are unknown.”

How did it end? The CPS investigation fizzled. A few months later, the family was cleared, French told me.

What Geren says

I called Geren’s Austin office and was directed to Craig Murphy, owner of the consulting firm that hired Sorensen.

Geren told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in December 2017: “If this happened, and I don’t know if it did, I was unaware of it. I didn’t instruct anyone to do it. If I had known about it, I would have put a stop to it.”

Murphy told me in a phone call that Geren knew nothing about the call to CPS until French filed his lawsuit much later.

Murphy said Geren never used the information in his campaign. But French did, he said, by sending out mailers in the follow-up 2018 campaign, accusing Geren’s campaign of a dirty trick.

“The only people using it in any political materials was Bo French himself,” Murphy said.

Can you blame him?

If someone did that to you, wouldn’t you tell voters about the dirty trick in the next go-round? How could you not?

I reached Sorensen on the phone. He declined to speak about the matter.

“Sorry, man,” he said before hanging up.

The apology

Although facets of this case have been made public, the actual apology has never been shared until now.

According to the legal agreement that resolved the case, there were strings attached to its release.

French’s lawyer told me, “Under the terms of the settlement, Mr. Sorensen’s written apology is not intended for public distribution or publication. There are certain limited circumstances under which the French family is permitted to distribute or publish Mr. Sorensen’s written apology.”

However, French is allowed to read it to someone over the phone, and that’s what he did with me. I want to share highlights because, as I stated, I’ve never seen anything like it.

Sorensen writes that he took “vague remarks” he heard and “I anonymously called Child Protective Services.” He was under the “mistaken impression” that the family failed to obtain medical assistance for their boy’s “alleged broken ribs.”

“I now know the report I provided to CPS was not accurate. ... I acknowledge that I misunderstood and misconstrued what I had overheard. And I apologize to the French family ...

“I am not aware of any instance in which any of the French children have been subjected to abuse or neglect. ... I now have no reason to question that Mr. and Mrs. French are anything other than caring and capable parents. I regret providing an inaccurate, anonymous tip to CPS based on incomplete and imperfect information, and I apologize to the entire French family for doing so.”

Quite extraordinary.

And yes, French spent close to $150,000 in legal fees to extract that confession/apology and clear his family’s name.

“It was a deliberate attack on my family,” French told me. “How dare I challenge Charlie Geren? ... I think it’s troubling to know that people will go to this kind of low in order to either maintain power or punish you for even daring to challenge their power.”

It’s a cliché, but it’s sadly true: This is why good people hesitate to run for public office.

News researchers Sarah Ruehle, Hannah Evans and Meagan Hurley contributed to this report.

Twitter: @DaveLieber