A Texas police chief accused of cheating on his wife with two women, neither of whom apparently knew the other, resigned after being arrested on suspicion of faking a wedding annulment he showed to one of his girlfriends, officials said.
The city of Stinnett announced the resignation of chief Jason Collier “with immediate effect”, according to a statement released on Thursday.
Collier, 41, was arrested on Thursday for investigating “tampering with a government record / with the intention of defrauding”, which is a crime, said the sergeant. Cindy Barkley of the Texas Department of Public Security in a statement.
“Collier reportedly sent a text message to the victim with a fraudulent government record attached,” said Barkley. “The document was a fraudulent marriage annulment.”
The Texas Rangers launched a criminal investigation on Tuesday at the request of the Hutchinson County Public Prosecutor, Barkley said.
Cecily Steinmetz of Amarillo, Texas, said in a Facebook post on Tuesday that she was Collier’s girlfriend until Monday, when she said she discovered “Boss Jason Collier is living a double / triple life.”
“He lied to me and presented me with false annulment documents when I found out he was married,” wrote Steinmetz. “I also found out about a second girlfriend … last night. He lied to us, our children, and asked us to marry him.”
She said she returned on Sunday from a trip with Collier to Taos, New Mexico, and that “his other girlfriend” was informed that he was on a work assignment in Portland, Oregon, as a cover story for the trip.
“He is a poor representative of his city,” said Steinmetz on Facebook, addressing the residents of Stinnett. “He also visited me in Amarillo when he was on duty.”
Amarillo is about an hour’s drive south of Stinnett. Collier did not respond on Friday to a request for comment.
Bond for Collier was set at $ 10,000, according to Barkley. The Hutchinson County Sheriff’s Office online prison records did not list Collier as an inmate or someone who had recently been released.
“The investigation is ongoing and no additional information is available,” said Barkley.
