A member of the Aurora Public Schools Board and Democratic state House candidate who describes his occupation as “Life Visionary” appears to have taken his knack for self-invention to extreme heights, an investigation by The Colorado Statesman has revealed.

Eric Durane Nelson, 38, one of two Aurora Democrats in a primary for the House District 42 seat, was rebuked by the state Division of Insurance for lying about his criminal background – including domestic violence arrests spanning a decade – and was denied an application for another insurance license for “failure to demonstrate that you are competent, trustworthy and of good moral character.”

At another time, Nelson was married to two women at the same time, according to court documents.

Based on information uncovered by The Statesman, the organization that works to elect House Democrats on Monday said it is calling on Nelson to withdraw from the race and, in an unprecedented move, will endorse his primary opponent, Dominique Jackson.

The HD 42 seat is currently represented by state Rep. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, who is term-limited and in a primary of her own against state Rep. Su Ryden, D-Aurora, for an open state Senate seat. Republican Mike Donald is running unopposed for the GOP nomination for the heavily Democratic House seat.

“I wouldn’t doubt that you got tipped off as we are getting closer and closer to the primary,” Nelson told The Statesman on Monday in a telephone interview. “My opponent and her mentors are doing everything in their power to dump negativity in my campaign.”

“Dr. Nelson feels anyone with a positive mental attitude that tries hard enough and aim high they will achieve success,” reads a line in his biography on the Aurora Public Schools site. Nelson boasts a doctorate in Organizational Psychology from the defunct Southeastern University in Washington, D.C., an outfit that lost its accreditation and closed its doors in 2009.

Although the specifics of his claims have changed over the years, Nelson says he’s earned numerous advanced degrees – as many as seven have shown up on various resumés – including a master’s degree from a university that says he was never enrolled there.

Asked by The Statesman early Monday afternoon why the Northeastern University registrar’s office in Boston said the school had no record of him, Nelson promised to email copies of his diploma and academic records but six hours later hadn’t sent anything.

Nelson was elected to the Aurora Public Schools Board in November 2013, finishing second out of five candidates for four at-large seats. He currently serves as the board’s secretary.

In earlier versions of his resume, Nelson describes himself as an Air Force veteran and has also been fond of posting photographs of himself on social media in an Air Force major’s uniform, despite having been an active duty member of the service for just eight weeks, according to Department of Defense documents.

An executive at a nonprofit where Nelson briefly worked earlier this year told The Statesman that once the organization’s board started digging, his stories all unraveled.

“We were thinking, this couldn’t be happening because he was so slick. But it just snowballed,” said a woman who works at Angel Eyes, a Cherry Creek-based organization that comes to the aid of parents who have lost an infant or toddler. (She asked to remain unidentified because she wasn’t authorized to discuss personnel matters.)

Nelson talked his way into a job as executive director of Angel Eyes earlier this year, saying he possessed a Master of Social Work degree, the woman said. But once he started dealing with actual social workers, his ruse became apparent.

“He sold himself really well,” she said. But before long, the orders for back child-support payment started rolling in – one from back east, then another from Jefferson County and then a third from Arapahoe County.

“You think this is the worst something can get, and then something else comes out,” she said.

Take, for instance, Nelson’s criminal record.

The Colorado Commissioner of Insurance discovered that Nelson had lied about his record when he was applying for an insurance producer license with bail surety – to work as a bail bondsman – in July 2009, saying he hadn’t been convicted of a crime when he’d pleaded guilty in Aurora municipal court to charges of disorderly conduct and battery just a couple months earlier.

The investigation also determined Nelson had lied on his application about whether he’d had a professional license suspended or revoked, when the Division of Insurance had suspended a different kind of insurance license – one to produce life, accident, health and property insurance -in May of that year because he’d failed to comply with court-ordered child-support payments.

Nelson acknowledges he failed to “check the box on that particular application” but told The Statesman it was “because the insurance division already had my criminal background in their records.”

His Colorado Bureau of Investigation criminal record – most of it now sealed – shows that Nelson was arrested in Colorado on 22 separate charges from November 2000 through December 2011. The charges include numerous domestic violence complaints, along with trespassing, disorderly conduct and prostitution charges.

“As a young man I did make some mistakes, but I’m wiser now and I’ve learned some life lessons,” Nelson told The Statesman. “I hope to help others to avoid such situations.”

Nelson has been the subject of several protective or restraining orders, court records show, including one filed in 1998 in Georgia, another in Jefferson County in 2002 and a third in Arapahoe County in 2012.

He was also arrested on a felony fugitive warrant out of New Mexico in Morgan County in 2006 following a traffic stop for speeding.

Court records show he pleaded guilty to a 2002 misdemeanor assault charge in Jefferson County. He was arrested and charged with leaving the scene of an accident in 1999 in his native Georgia and sentenced to 10 days in jail.

Referring to his brushes with the law, Nelson added, “That has made me what I am, a man of character, and I’ve been fighting for my community over the past 16 years living in Aurora.”

He was living in Colorado, according to court documents, in September 2001 when his wife, Latosha Nelson, filed for an annulment in Fulton County, Georgia, charging Nelson with bigamy because he was also at the same time married to Frankeisha Nelson. A judge granted the order and restored her maiden name.

Asked on Monday about the annulment records, Nelson expressed surprise and said it was the first he’d heard he’d supposedly had two wives at the same time.

“All I know is, I’m currently married and very happy,” he said.

But state Rep. Alec Garnett, D-Denver, who chairs the House Majority Project – the state Democratic Party organization responsible for electing Democrats to the state House – wasn’t buying it.

“I am deeply disturbed by the revelations regarding Mr. Nelson’s criminal history, and other misrepresentations,” Garnett told The Statesman. “Coloradans are looking for leaders they can trust and the Democratic Party strives to be their standard bearer. In light of this information, I strongly encourage Mr. Nelson to drop out of the race. Additionally, I am instructing the House Majority Project to officially endorse Nelson’s opponent, Dominique Jackson, and to consider using their resources to assist Ms. Jackson as they see fit.”

Mail ballots went out a week ago for the June 28 primary election.

Jackson, for her part, said she’d heard rumors about her primary opponent but hadn’t pursued them.

“I’m aware that there are some issues,” she said. “As a candidate, I’m not interested in bashing my opponent in a way that might harm his life or his family. By the same token, I am greatly concerned the people of House District 42 deserve a representative who’s in it for the right reasons.”

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com