Colorado may have made a big staff change this offseason but that doesn’t preclude a recent scandal from coming back to haunt the school with some more headlines.
Per ABC7 in Denver, former Buffs assistant coach Joe Tumpkin took a guilty plea deal for “third-degree assault as domestic violence” of Pamela Fine, his ex-girlfriend who was at the center of a scandal at the school that led to Tumpkin’s ouster two years ago.
Fine had originally told then-head coach Mike MacIntyre about the domestic violence from the CU safeties coach in late 2016, which included over 100 incidents during a 21-month period while the couple was together. Despite this information and MacIntyre’s claims that he would handle the matter, Tumpkin remained on staff and even got a promotion for Colorado’s bowl game after defensive coordinator Jim Leavitt left for Oregon.
Tumpkin was eventually suspended in January of 2017 and later resigned when it came to light that Fine had a restraining order issued against him and told her story to several media outlets.
Colorado eventually hired law firm Pepper Hamilton (of Baylor report fame) to investigate while MacIntyre and his athletic director Rick George were forced to donate $100,000 each to domestic violence causes.