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'Cuckold' ex-cop, wife settle with Pueblo for $20,000

By Sara Burnett, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published March 5, 2008 at 1:02 p.m.
Updated March 5, 2008 at 1:02 p.m.

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Mickey Bethel stands in a courtroom at the Pueblo Judicial Building flanked by his attorney, Michael Lowe, and his wife Tammy.

Photo by Bryan Kelsen, Pueblo Chieftain

Mickey Bethel stands in a courtroom at the Pueblo Judicial Building flanked by his attorney, Michael Lowe, and his wife Tammy.

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A former Pueblo police officer who said he was fired because he and his wife have a "cuckold" relationship will receive a $20,000 settlement from the city, the Pueblo city attorney's office said today.

Michael and Tammy Bethel filed a federal lawsuit last year. In it, they said that Tammy Bethel is free to have sex with other people, as long as they are not married or minors, and provided she tells her husband about it.

Michael Bethel is not allowed to have sex with others, though he sometimes joins his wife when she is with others, the lawsuit stated.

The Bethels claim Michael Bethel was fired from the Pueblo police department, where he was a sergeant, after department officials learned of the arrangement.

City officials denied the allegation, saying Bethel's dismissal stemmed from his actions while on duty.

Bethel was fired in 2006. Four days later, he was charged with witness tampering and official misconduct.

Prosecutors said Bethel tried to convince a man not to testify in a burglary case because he was afraid the evidence would include a videotape of his wife having sex with the man.

A judge threw out one charge, and a jury acquitted Bethel on the other charge.

But in December, after a two-day arbitration hearing, an independent arbitrator determined Bethel had been properly terminated.

In a statement, the Pueblo city attorney's office said it "vehemently denied liability" but decided to settle the lawsuit because it would cost taxpayers more than $20,000 to continue defending the case.

Comments

  • March 5, 2008

    1:14 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Squatch writes:

    WOW!

  • March 5, 2008

    1:19 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    DenverTea writes:

    Indeed...that is really different. I wonder whatt he inpetus for that type of relationship is....hmm

  • March 5, 2008

    1:32 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    reddog writes:

    It always kills me when people claim they are not liable but cut a fat check, I wouldn't pay a cent if I were innocent. Strange relationship, hope there are not any kids involved.

  • March 5, 2008

    1:42 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    AC writes:

    I hear Greeley is hiring... maybe they could go there.

  • March 5, 2008

    2:18 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    wow writes:

    Wonder if she brought her whip to court...Nice leathers.

  • March 5, 2008

    2:27 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Mtnsjohn writes:

    Blackmail: threatening to take a frivolous case to trial to induce a city or county to cost effectively settle, thereby securing "JUSTICE" for self-defined victims and a good living for an attorney.

  • March 5, 2008

    2:30 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    EZBakeOven writes:

    Yuck. The whole story is just gross.

  • March 5, 2008

    2:46 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    American100 writes:

    This same thing happened in Florida in the early 1990's. The cop husband would hide in the closet and video tape his wife with other men and sometimes join them.

    The woman in this story resembles the woman in the fla case.

    Slimey story.

  • March 5, 2008

    2:53 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Squatch writes:

    No joke. She had plastic surgery on the upper body, why not the face?

  • March 5, 2008

    4:41 p.m.

    happymike44 writes:

    (This comment was removed by the site staff.)

  • March 5, 2008

    6:19 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    airbornebigfoot writes:

    geez, has it been twenty years already since
    Dennis and Donna Yaklich drug the pueblo cops through the mud?
    And now this? an impotent cop and his slut wife win twenty grand for this? what a joke.
    Well, at least now they can buy some fancier video equipment, possibly an editing machine.

  • March 5, 2008

    6:58 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    American100 writes:

    I knew a cop in Pueblo when the Donna Y thing went on.. Did you know she had been convicted of fraud or forgery (don't remember which) and he was about to divorce her and have her prosecuted for forging his parents checks? She came up with the abused husband thing with the help of her attorney who hired the tv people.

    Sad story.

    This is a gross story.

  • March 5, 2008

    7:38 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    ham writes:

    This guy and his wife obviously applied to the wrong law enforcement agency. Greeley is where they belong!

    Nice zombie looking Stepford wife there, pal. Good luck with that.

  • August 19, 2008

    10:38 a.m.

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    Knuckles writes:

    They should be ashamed of themselves!!! Mickey was not raised this way and neither should his children. His parents are probably so embaressed and his kids. Could you imagine having a tramp for a mother. Someone should have social services go in and make sure the kids are ok and not seeing things like this. Mickeys brother was a good cop that got hurt in the line of work and he gets fired for taking advantage.SHAME ON YOU! Prostitution is legal in Nevada if that you life time dream. And why are we giving them money when it was his fault?