COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.—A former Colorado prisons director who prosecutors said harassed his estranged wife and used a restricted law enforcement database to look up the license plate of her boyfriend’s truck has pleaded guilty in the case.
Nolin Lee Renfrow’s then-wife sought a restraining order last year when he allegedly kicked down her front door during a quarrel over their ongoing divorce, authorities said. She told police that he has repeatedly violated that order.
Prosecutors also alleged that Renfrow or an accomplice sneaked into her yard—from which Renfrow was banned—and took down the license plate of her boyfriend’s truck. Renfrow was accused of persuading a prison security worker to run the plate number through a state investigative database that is restricted to law enforcement agencies.
At the time, Renfrow was working with a company that had won a state contract to help build a prison complex in Canon City. Renfrow, 53, allegedly told the security officer that the license plate was from a vehicle abandoned at the construction site, The Gazette reported.
Renfrow also was accused of calling the boyfriend’s employers and telling them about the man’s relationship with his estranged wife.
Renfrow pleaded guilty to false reporting and three counts of violating a protection order. He’ll receive a five-year suspended sentence under a plea agreement reached Monday in Fremont County.
The agreement includes an order prohibiting Renfrow from entering a 12-county region of central Colorado. Court records don’t give a reason for the restriction.
Renfrow’s attorney, Samuel McClure, didn’t return a phone message from The Gazette seeking comment. A phone number for Renfrow could not be found.
Renfrow retired as director of prisons for the Colorado Department of Corrections in January 2006 amid criticism that he used vacation time and sick leave to work as a consultant to companies bidding for a prison contract.
The state’s Criminal Bureau of Investigation investigated, and prosecutors in El Paso County found no evidence of wrongdoing, bureau spokesman Lance Clem said.
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Information from: The Gazette,
