More than four months after allegations first surfaced that former University of Colorado assistant football coach Joe Tumpkin repeatedly abused his former girlfriend, the school’s board of regents has concluded its investigations and issued punishments to the individuals involved in the handling of the case.
At the core of the investigation was the manner in which head coach Mike MacIntyre, athletic director Rick George and chancellor Phil DiStefano handled the accusations against Tumpkin when first made aware of them.
Sports Illustrated first reported that the trio atop Colorado football may have mishandled mandatory reporting protocol.
Since the SI report, Tumpkin has resigned from the program and MacIntyre’s pending contract extension has been placed on hold pending the completion of the board’s investigation.
Matt Stephens, deputy sports editor of the Denver Post, reported their findings and punishment via Twitter on Monday afternoon.
The board found that MacIntyre (who first learned of the accusations directly from the alleged victim), George (whom MacIntyre told) and DiStefano (whom George then informed) failed on three key levels.
They failed to report the domestic violence allegations to the school’s Title IX office; they failed to report the allegations to law enforcement; and they failed to properly supervise Tumpkin.
Several of the incidents reported to MacInytre allegedly occurred at team hotels while the Buffs were traveling, although none were reported to have happened directly on campus.
The punishment includes a 10-day suspension for DiStefano and a pair $100,000 donations to domestic violence awareness programs by MacIntyre and George. All three will receive letters of reprimand
Ken Salazar of the law firm WilmerHale, who conducted one of the investigations, said they found no evidence of a cover-up by the three CU figureheads.
Board president Bruce Benson did say, “We didn’t handle this as well as we should have. We’ll own up to that,” according to Stephens.
All three will receive additional training on domestic violence reporting and prevention. The board made it clear during the meeting that the University of Colorado will not tolerate domestic violence.