New Hearing Scheduled for August
WATONGA - The emergency protective order against former Watonga police chief Shawn Kays was extended on Thursday during a hearing at the Blaine County Courthouse.
Kays’ ex-girlfriend is seeking a permanent order against Kays, but Judge Paul Woodward decided to tap the brakes. Woodward said he has seen TV news coverage about the case but otherwise knows little about it, so he wants more time to examine the facts and determine whether the case merits a permanent order.
In the meantime, the emergency order remains in place. A new hearing has been scheduled for mid-August.
Kays’ lawyer Matthew Oppel requested only that the judge allow Kays to possess firearms in the interim so that Kays can continue to operate his private security business.
Kays was fired from the Watonga Police Department last week after he had been previously demoted from chief to patrol officer following a weekslong suspension.
Kays recently vacationed with the woman who filed the emergency order against him, and has said that he was placed on leave because of salacious posts about her made by a fake account.
The woman’s petition for an emergency order said she learned last Monday about “flyers” distributed around Watonga that depicted her and Kays engaged in a sex act. Kays was served with the order and dismissed from the WPD later that same day; the order had prevented him from possessing firearms until Thursday’s hearing.