Darren O’Connor, a former member of the embattled NAACP Boulder County Branch, is trying to keep alive a lawsuit that alleges city of Boulder officials violated his First Amendment rights.

O’Connor alleges that city officials retaliated against him for his continued public criticism of Boulder Police Chief Stephen Redfearn. The city filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in early June, and O’Connor, through his attorney Joe Salazar, submitted a response on June 30.

In his response, O’Connor, who is an attorney, points to Redfearn filing multiple complaints with the Colorado Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel as an example of retaliation. The response highlights City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde filing a complaint against O’Connor with the national NAACP.

Additionally, the response pushes back on repeated claims that O’Connor, in a mediated meeting in July 2024 between city officials and the Boulder NAACP, made homophobic remarks about Redfearn, who is gay.

An audio recording of that meeting was leaked, which city officials said violated a confidentiality agreement that the Boulder County NAACP parties signed. O’Connor has said through legal filings that he and his colleagues objected to the confidentiality clause. It adds that a new agreement was signed that “would not legally obligate the parties,” according to court documents, which explicitly say that the city spread lies about the meeting.

In its motion to dismiss the suit, the city provides what it says is the true agreement. That document, which appears to be signed by O’Connor and two other then-members of the Boulder County NAACP, does not have an explicit passage that removes any agreements to not share the details of that meeting.

As a member of the NAACP Boulder County Branch, O’Connor and his then-colleagues publicly decried Redfearn’s role in the Boulder Police Department. Redfearn was a captain with the Aurora Police Department. He was on duty the night Elijah McClain, an unarmed 23-year-old Black man, encountered police in an incident that led to his death.

That night, Redfearn changed the incident code from “suspicious person” to “assault on an officer.” Redfearn was also a police commander when the Aurora Police Department used smoke canisters to disperse a 2020 protest. In both cases, the city settled civil cases. Rivera-Vandermyde has said there have been no misconduct allegations against Redfearn relating to the investigation of McClain’s death.

Update on NAACP Lawsuit

O’Connor is one of 13 defendants in a lawsuit filed last month by the national NAACP. Filings in U.S. District Court show that all 13 have been issued summonses.

The defendants named in the lawsuit are: O’Connor, Annett James, Jude Landsman, Veronica Sommers, Gabriela Kioupakis, Lawrence Pevec, Madelyn Strong Woodley, Judy Hutson, Glenda Strong Robinson, Louisa Matthias, Sheila Davis, John Howell and Velveta Golightly-Howell.

The suit accuses the defendants of breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, civil theft and civil conspiracy. It also calls for a trial by jury. The suit accuses former members of not turning over accounts for the Boulder County NAACP that have thousands of dollars in funds, and for harming the organization when voting to dissolve the branch earlier this year. The national NAACP has said that the defendants did not have the authority to dissolve the branch.