Colorado coach Mike MacIntyre was aware of allegations of domestic violence against former assistant coach Joe Tumpkin for nearly a month before Tumpkin was placed on administrative leave, his accuser told Sports Illustrated.
The accuser, an ex-girlfriend of Tumpkin, told the magazine she had a phone conversation with MacIntyre on Dec. 9, during which she told the coach she had been physically abused by Tumpkin several times starting in February 2015. The following week, after defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt left Colorado for the same job at Oregon, MacIntyre named Tumpkin his defensive coordinator for Colorado’s appearance on Dec. 29 in the Valero Alamo Bowl against Oklahoma State.
On Jan. 27, Colorado announced Tumpkin had resigned at the request of the school, and that he had been “immediately” placed on administrative leave on Jan. 6 when MacIntyre and athletic director Rick George learned of the temporary restraining order against him. Court records, however, show the restraining order was issued Dec. 20.
Tumpkin was charged with five counts of second-degree assault and three counts of third-degree assault in a domestic violence case, the district attorney for Adams and Broomfield counties in Colorado announced Tuesday.
A spokesman for the Colorado athletics department did not immediately respond when asked by ESPN to confirm its previous statement that MacIntyre and George were unaware of the restraining order until Jan. 6.
The accuser told Sports Illustrated she was abused by Tumpkin approximately 80 times over a nearly two-year period. The most recent allegations of abuse took place in late November, when the woman visited Tumpkin the weekend Colorado played Washington State.
In her request for the restraining order, filed in Boulder County Court, the woman detailed the incident.
“He came home around midnight intoxicated on that Friday night,” she wrote. “When I tried to end our relationship, he became angry and started jabbing his finger in my face. He then pinned me against the wall and choked me.
“The night after the game, he sat on my back and pulled me back by my hair. He threw me into the wall, on the ground and choked me. He finally pulled me out of his leather chair by the roots of my hair and dragged me across the dining room to the door where he told me to ‘Get the f— out.'”
Tumpkin spent the past two seasons as Colorado’s safeties coach.
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