Former Watonga Police Chief Shawn Kays has been dismissed from the force.
The firing was confirmed by Watonga City Manager Larry Mitchell and comes just a week after Kays was demoted from chief to patrol officer.
Mitchell declined to comment on why Kays was fired or what had changed since his demotion last week. However, court records show that an emergency protective order was filed against Kays on Monday by a woman who describes herself in the filing as Kays’ ex-girlfriend.
On Monday morning, the filing says, the woman began to receive phone calls about a flyer that had been “distributed in mailboxes, on car windows, in parking lots, and randomly thrown on the streets.”
“This flyer is a picture of myself and the boyfriend Shawn Kays in a sexual act,” the filing says.
The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation is now reportedly investigating the incident.
Kays was served on Monday and ordered not to have any contact with the ex-girlfriend. A hearing about the order is scheduled for later this week.
Kays, who had been the Watonga police chief since 2018 and served on the force for years before that, was placed on paid administrative leave about three weeks ago. Last week he met with Mitchell and told Mitchell he no longer wanted to be the chief; they agreed he would remain on the force as a patrol officer.
However, Kays was taking two weeks’ vacation and had not yet reported back to work when he was entirely dismissed from the department on Monday.
Kays said last week that he was originally placed on leave because of salacious Facebook posts from a fake account that someone else made.
He did not return a call seeking comment on Tuesday.
The firing leaves the Watonga Police Department with about seven officers and no police chief or assistant chief. The department is currently hiring.