KUSA - "They gave no reason for my termination," said Joel Schults, the former police chief of the Adams State University Police Department.
Schults says he was placed on administrative leave in late June after a subordinate, officer Alycia Riggs, pulled over an Adams State University athletic coach.
"My officer stopped a vehicle that was being driven by Louis Wilson, head coach of the basketball team," Schults said.
In an email provided to 9NEWS by Schults, Riggs explains to Schults that it was a routine traffic stop for driving into a bike lane and weaving. Riggs adds that Wilson claimed she contacted him because he is black. She adds he yelled "you better watch your ass," before he drove away.
In a phone interview, Wilson says the allegations are untrue.
"I initiated the call with Joel," he said. "Joel was very professional. He was very nice about it. He did not indicate to me that there was the accusation of a threat of any kind."
Wilson adds that he never felt racially profiled and never mentioned the incident to anyone. But Schults says he was placed on leave the next business day.
In a document provided to 9NEWS by Schults, an administrator writes that Schults was placed on administrative leave due to "concerns regarding [his] leadership of the ASU PD." But Schults says he was never given a list of substantiated incidents or complaints against him.
"I asked them to give me a more appropriate charging document with dates and times and they refused to do that," Schults said.
By the end of July, Schults says he had been fired without any official explanation. He says he believes he was let go as a preemptive move to quash any further investigation into the incident between Coach Wilson and Riggs. Wilson says he never influenced Schults' position within the school or took the matter to a school administrator.
"If you look at the timeline, seven years of great commendable service, 48 hours of career-ending communication," Schults said. "There was no pre-existing problem, and I had a very successful tenure up until that point."
Schults says he believes it was nothing more than retaliation.
Officer Alycia Riggs tells 9NEWS she left the force because she, too, feared further retaliation. In her resignation letter, Riggs writes:
I received a threat from Coach Louis Wilson, which as I understand has not been addressed in any way other than the email sent from Chief Joel Schults immediately prior to his suspension. I currently do not have a chief whom I feel would offer any protection against retaliation from Coach Wilson or other Athletics faculty.
Adams State University provides this statement:
The safety and well-being of our students is of utmost importance to the Adams State University Trustees and administration. The Board intends to review these allegations and undertake necessary measures should these allegations be substantiated.
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