HYGIENE, Colo. — A former firefighter charged with raping multiple women at the Hygiene Fire Volunteer Department in Boulder County resigned from the department in lieu of termination and kept his job at a neighboring department, where another female coworker complained about his behavior, records obtained by 9NEWS show.
Boulder County Sheriff's Office detectives said Kamron Barnaby, 30, raped two fellow Hygiene firefighters on the job multiple times -- and assaulted the teenage daughter of a coworker who was at the firehouse to complete high school volunteer hours.
A fourth woman also told detectives the Hygiene Fire captain sexually assaulted her at a cabin belonging to the then-assistant chief of the department, an arrest affidavit said.
"I believe it is likely the actual number of victims may be higher than what is listed in this affidavit," Detective Mike McKinley wrote. "During this investigation, several women have voiced concerns of potential retaliation from Kamron [Barnaby] or his family and have refused to come in for an interview."
Boulder-based attorney John Pineau represents Barnaby.
"It is a matter of law," he said. "On the facts and on the evidence, he is innocent."
Before the criminal allegations were made starting in August 2022, Barnaby faced disciplinary action within the Hygiene Fire Department for breaking policy by having a romantic relationship with a subordinate firefighter, the affidavit said. At the time in early 2021, it was believed to be consensual, Hygiene Chief Cody Trevithick said.
The affidavit said the internal report included interviews with several female firefighters who "spoke about sexual harassment or unwelcomed sexual advances they received from Captain Barnaby."
Trevithick said he wanted to follow the recommendation of the department's investigator and fire Barnaby for breaking protocol. He said he was talked out of it by the assistant chief and overruled by the agency's board of directors.
"Looking back at it, I should've pulled the chief card and said 'he's gone," Trevithick told 9NEWS.
Instead, Barnaby resigned and was allowed to send a goodbye letter to staff, in which he recounted the "blood, sweat, tears and a lot of laughs" shared with his fellow firefighters.
"The experiences I had here will forever carry on with me, many of them I wouldn't have had it if weren't for you all," he wrote.
After leaving Hygiene Fire under threat of termination, Barnaby kept his second job as a firefighter on the other side of Longmont at the Mountain View Fire Protection District (MVPD). In a letter confirming the end of his employment, Trevithick told Barnaby he was no longer welcome on the property and could never be re-hired by Hygiene Fire.
Trevithick said he didn't call Mountain View to tell them why Barnaby resigned -- and they didn't call to ask.
A spokesperson for the Mountain View Fire Department said it does not comment on personnel matters or internal investigations, but documents obtained by 9NEWS show a female firefighter there complained about his behavior a year and a half after he left the Hygiene department.
"I think he has boundary issues with women," the woman said, according to the documents.
In her statement to an external investigator MVPD hired to look into her broader claims of sexual harassment and a hostile work environment, she recounted a medical call where Barnaby and other male firefighters left a female patient's chest "fully exposed."
"Later at the station, the guys had discussions about how attractive this woman was and what a hot body and a cougar," the woman said, documents showed. MVPD found the "greater weight of the evidence did not support" that the female firefighter raising concerns faced a hostile work environment.
The firefighter said she worried about newly hired female employees at MVPD. "He will outrank them and I have concerns for them," she said.
Following an exit interview with a female firefighter in the summer of 2022, Trevithick reported her sexual assault allegation to the Boulder County Sheriff's Office which began the criminal investigation, the lead detective told a judge at Barnaby's preliminary hearing in September. Detectives interviewed multiple female firefighters at the Hygiene department, the affidavit said.
One woman who said she was attacked told investigators she didn't know "how she was supposed to report it in her chain of command when it was her chain of command assaulting her," the affidavit said.
"We could've prevented a lot of this from happening if I had known about it," Trevithick said.
Boulder County detectives said Trevithick reported the alleged sexual assault the day he found out about it from an exit interview with a female firefighter within the department.
In May 2023, Trevithick fired the assistant fire chief who he said "begged" to allow Barnaby to resign. He cited "conduct that violated the district's code of ethics," in the termination letter.
In December 2022, Mountain View Fire put Barnaby on administrative leave with pay because it learned he was the subject of a criminal investigation. The investigation had begun months earlier in August.
When Barnaby was arrested in April, Mountain View put him on administrative leave without pay. He resigned from the department a day later and wrote of his "deep sadness" to leave in his resignation letter.
"I appreciate the love and support you all have shown me," Barnaby wrote. "The opportunity to serve at Mountain View has been a great one."
He's now charged with 11 counts and is due in court on Dec. 20 for an arraignment hearing.
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