On one side of the federal courtroom on Tuesday sat Adams County Sheriff Gene Claps and some current and former Adams deputies, all wearing suits and ties and flanked by high-dollar lawyers.
On the other, the attorneys represent the place where Claps enforces the law and the elected body that approves his budget.
The unusual civil case offers a window into the kind of partisan politics that occasionally roil sheriff’s departments across Colorado. It began in federal court Tuesday.
Claps and three men who were once AdCo sheriff’s commanders with him are suing the county commissioners over what they claim were politically motivated firings by previous Sheriff Rick Reigenborn.
Claps received a measure of vindication in June 2022 when he throttled Reigenborn at the Democratic primary ballot box, then went on to win the top job in that November’s general election.
But Claps and the others say the loss of potential income and dignity just because they didn’t politically support the then-sheriff was worth fighting for in the name of the First Amendment.
“These terminations weren't about performance. They weren't about behavior. They were about politics,” said Felipe Bohnet-Gomez, an attorney representing the four plaintiffs, including the current sheriff. “They all said the same thing, that they could be loyal to the sheriff’s office no matter who sits behind the desk.”
The case will offer jurors a deep dive into Adams County law enforcement politics, which may at times have a small-town feel. But this isn’t Mayberry. The Denver suburb with more than 500,000 residents has the kind of big-county problems with drugs and violence that plague its neighbors and all insist that rank-and-file deputies manage to do their jobs professionally, even if politics has at times permeated the top ranks of the department. Adams is now on its third sheriff in 11 years. That person manages a staff of more than 600.
The county argued Tuesday that the firings were obviously not politically motivated, given that a number of people who openly supported Reigenborn’s opponent stayed on staff and that every top leader has the right to shape his executive team.
“This isn't a case where a new sheriff comes into town, doesn't know anyone and cleans his house,” said attorney Saugat Thapa, who is representing the Adams County Commissioners. “Sheriff Reigenborn had history with the plaintiffs and he had knowledge about how he perceived them. And based on the plaintiff’s history, Reigenborn believed that they contributed to this cultural problem that he saw at the sheriff’s office.”
Reigenborn served one term as Adams County Sheriff from 2019 to 2023. After he lost a re-election bid, he was charged in 2023 for falsifying training records and attempting to influence public servants. He pleaded guilty and has been stripped of his peace officer’s license. His former undersheriff and head of training, Tommy McLallen and Mickey Bethel, also pleaded guilty to felonies in the falsifying documents schemes.
But before all that, Reigenborn long had political ambitions and made a run for sheriff in 2014, against Mark McIntosh. He was only a sergeant at the time and he lost. McIntosh, a Republican, was sheriff until 2019 after losing his re-election bid to Reigenborn, who likely benefitted in the 2018 election from a mid-term year when Democrats swept a number of positions up and down the ballot amid President Donald Trump’s first term.
Reigenborn is likely to testify in the trial.
Lawyers for Claps on Tuesday said Reigenborn, when he won, wasn’t working at the Adams County Sheriff’s Office at the time and began formulating plans right away to unseat those who were politically – and financially – supportive of McIntosh in his re-election attempt.
They also allege that Reigenborn gutted long-standing hiring and retention policies at the Adams County Sheriff’s Office the day he was sworn in, Jan. 8, 2019. Then the following day his newly minted undersheriff Tommy McLallen handed termination letters to Claps, TJ Coates, Mark Mitchell and Kevin Currier – all commanders at the time under McIntosh.
Thapa on Tuesday told the almost entirely male federal jury that he would prove that Reigenborn wasn’t as politically minded and angry as the plaintiffs’ attorneys say he was.
He said Reigenborn kept a number of people who openly supported McIntosh on staff once he was sworn in, including a public information officer and the man who eventually became his number two in the office.
“You heard this reference to clearing the house, but that was not the case,” Thapa said. “He didn't get rid of everybody.”
