Tumpkin to serve 25-day sentence

BOU L D E R » Former University of Colorado assistant coach Joe Tumpkin will serve a 25-day jail sentence after Broomfield police refused to let him into the jail work-release program.

Tumpkin on April 25 was sentenced to 30 days of jail and 30 months of probation after pleading guilty to third-degree assault in his domestic violence case against his exgirlfriend Pam Fine.

Judge Michael Goodbee ruled Tumpkin would be allowed to serve the 30day jail sentence as work release, meaning Tumpkin would go to his job during the day but report to the jail on nights and weekends. Goodbee also put a 10-day stay on the sentence to allow Tumpkin to set up the work release.

But according to a motion filed by defense attorney Jon Banashek, Broomfield police Sgt. Mike Jones, the alternative sentencing unit supervisor at the jail, refused to allow Tumpkin to enter the jail’s work release program.

Banashek wrote that Jones sent an email stating: “As I told your client (Tumpkin), due to the nature, recency and seriousness of his charge and our policy, he does not qualify for this program. Our work-release program is a privilege and not a right as per Colorado Statutes.”

Banashek filed a motion with Goodbee asking him to reconsider the sentence to either do away with the jail time component in favor of community service or reduce the sentence to three days of straight jail in light of Jones’ decision, which Banashek called “arbitrary, capricious and legally unsupported.”

Prosecutors did not take a stance on the decision by Broomfield police, but did object to a change in the sentence, as did Fine.