Colorado police chief resigns after son arrested "joyriding" in Simla Police Department Humvee
The police chief in Simla, Colorado, Tony Schiefelbein, has resigned from his position this week as he faced a disciplinary hearing for allowing his 17-year-old son to drive a Simla Police Department vehicle. Records obtained by CBS News Colorado show the chief's son was stopped in Parker in August while driving a Simla police Humvee. Parker is located about 70 miles from Simla.
According to police and court documents and interviews, on Aug. 20, police officers in Parker stopped a black 2009 Humvee registered to the Town of Simla.
Parker police records say the vehicle was being driven by a 17-year-old, the son of Simla's police chief. Parker police cited the teenager for knowingly possessing a vehicle equipped with red or blue lights and careless driving.
Parker police refused to provide further answers about the traffic stop such as if anyone else was in the vehicle or what led to the late afternoon traffic stop. Parker Police Department Spokesman Josh Hans told CBS News Colorado the department would not release any more information since it was "an open case and a juvenile. We issued the citations and the DA's office charged him."
Simla Mayor Ryan Fulmer said the police Humvee was equipped with emergency police lights and the police chief's son was "absolutely not approved or allowed" to drive it. Fulmer said after the August incident, Schiefelbein admitted, "he made a mistake allowing his son to drive the police Humvee."
During a telephone interview with CBS News Colorado, Schiefelbein called what happened with his son and the town vehicle a "misunderstanding. It wasn't like he stole the department Humvee." He went on to say his son was a volunteer with the Simla Police Department and was authorized to drive department vehicles.
Fulmer said that while the teen had helped the town with some IT work, he emphasized the teenager was not authorized to drive town vehicles. Asked if there were any other people in the Humvee with his son, and why the teen was driving the vehicle 70 miles away from Simla, Schiefelbein said he had "no comment on that" and hung up saying, "I don't have time for this today."
Fulmer said Schiefelbein was scheduled to face a pre-disciplinary hearing Tuesday night over the Humvee incident and three other performance issues, but submitted his resignation before the hearing, putting a stop to the disciplinary proceedings. Fulmer said with the police chief's resignation, the town board said for his last two weeks of work, Schiefelbein was prohibited from taking any town vehicles home as the town board decided on a "revocation of his take-home car rights."
Schiefelbein's son is due in court in Douglas County on Dec. 2.
Simla, which has about 600 residents, is located in Elbert County and is about 48 miles northeast of Colorado Springs.
"He was a good chief for a long time", said Fulmer, who went on to say the Humvee incident showed a "lack of judgment" on the part of the police chief.