Colorado Sheriff Wins $1.3 Million in Lawsuit Against County

Current Adams County, Colorado, Sheriff sued the county and the former sheriff, and a jury awarded him and his peers more than $5 million, his attorney said.

Current Sheriff Gene Claps was awarded more than $1.3 million of the more than $5 million issued to former high ranking members of the sheriff's office, his attorney Iris Halpern told 9NEWS .

Claps, along with former chief Timothy James Coates, former captain Mark Mitchell and former commander Kevin Currier, filed a lawsuit in 2020 against the Adams County Sheriff's Office and then-Sheriff Rick Reigenborn.

In the lawsuit, the four said they were pressured to resign or be fired for supporting Reigenborn's opponent in the 2018 election.

"[Reigenborn] terminated all of these individuals simply because they were supporting a different candidate," Halpern said Tuesday at a news conference.

Claps, a Democrat like Reigenborn, won the sheriff election in 2022.

The lawsuit was filed in 2020. He'd been fired, elected, and served as sheriff for two years by the time the jury heard their case.