An attempt at harmony between Boulder’s local NAACP chapter and city leaders is playing out like a bad song.

Boulder City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde reported the local chapter of the National Association for Advancement of Colored People to its parent organization over “unethical behavior” after chapter leaders breeched stipulations in a signed contract in a threat to keep Stephen Redfearn from being named Boulder Police Department chief.

Rivera-Vandermyde announced her hiring of Redfearn as Chief over two other candidates Sept. 6, despite the fact that the local NAACP president Annett James threatened to expose what she referred to as his “dangerous behavior.”

The signed contract

The agreement stipulated that a closed three-hour meeting July 25, 2024 between then-interim Boulder Police Chief Redfearn, the city manager and local leadership of the NAACP stay confidential.  But Boulder’s NAACP chapter, which was opposed to Redfearn being chosen as chief by Rivera-Vandermyde, revealed they had secretly recorded the meeting.

They made a short clip of the transcript public Friday, Oct. 11.

In a news release, the local chapter accused Redfearn of being  “demonstrably anti-Black” and of displaying “cultural incompetence” during the discussion.

“NAACP Boulder County is shocked and dismayed over Boulder City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde’s decision to promote Stephen Redfearn to Boulder Police Chief,” according to the press release.

However, Rivera-Vandermyde fought back Wednesday in an attempt to set the record straight.

In a widely disseminated news release, she tossed a counter-punch, stating that making a small piece of the three-hour meeting public was “a blatant attempt to influence a fair and thorough hiring process.”

She went on to say that she hopes the national NAACP will “take appropriate action.” She said that the July discussion between Redfearn and local NAACP leaders was designed to “foster positive relationships.”

An attempt by The Denver Gazette for reaction from the national office did not get a reply by press time.

River-Vandermyde revealed that homophobic language was used at the meeting which upset Redfearn. The 45-year-old Chief had “candidly and vulnerably shared his experience of being outed as a gay man during his time with the Aurora Police Department and the impact this experience had on him.”

The “Mutual Respect and Dialogue Agreement” stipulated that all parties were to keep discussion during the meeting secret. It was signed July 21 by three local NAACP leaders who attended — James, Darren O’Connor, and Jude Landsman — as well as Redfearn, his chief of staff, Rivera-Vandermyde and two mediators.

For nearly a year, the local NAACP chapter has been calling for Redfearn’s resignation because of his involvement and testimony over the death of Aurora resident Elijah McClain.

Redfearn was a captain with the Aurora Police Department in 2019 when officers confronted the 23-year-old Black man simply walking home from a convenience store, held him down with extreme force and paramedics injected him with a sedative Ketamine.

Redfearn called in a critical incident team to investigate the arrest. He also altered the dispatch logs that night to describe the event as an “assault on a police officer” rather than a “suspicious person.”

At the time there was no classification code for an incident specifying the attempt to confiscate of an officer’s gun.

Redfearn said that when he arrived, the incident was so heated that he immediately made the order to investigate it further instead of sending the officers on their way to write reports.

“I was like ‘Woah, everybody time out. This is a critical incident. We’ve got to treat this like an officer involved shooting’,” he told The Denver Gazette in an earlier interview. He said that the protocol involved interviewing the officers and calling the district attorney and critical incident team.

He later testified against the officers for the prosecution in their trials, which he said was “difficult.”

In an earlier interview, James said she was concerned that Redfearn “just took that statement.” She added that: “He should have been a bit more thorough. If you really care about building community engagement, then you are truthful and don’t hide behind an archaic police policy.”

These are statements which Redfearn said were “frankly offensive.” He wrote an op-ed to in the Boulder Daily Camera to defend himself, describing McClain’s death as “heartbreaking.”

James did not respond to a request for comment on the recent developments but late Wednesday night,  O’Connor commented on X that he didn’t know the closed meeting was being recorded. He noted that Rivera-Vandermyde “had taken liberty with the truth” and posted the entire recording on his profile.

Rivera-Vandermyde noted that neither she nor Redfearn would be available for interviews with The Denver Gazette.