A married Texas police chief was arrested Thursday for allegedly falsifying an annulment to trick his mistress into believing they were soon to be married. When she tried to verify the document, she went viral and found out that he was dating yet another woman who was not his wife.
After a series of twists and turns suitable for a soap opera, Stinnett’s former police chief Jason Collier, a 41-year-old ordained minister who is married with four children, is charged with tampering with a government document with the intent to defraud, a felony, according to the local station KACR.
Stinnett’s city council had put him on administrative leave on Wednesday, and his resignation followed shortly after, according to multiple Facebook posts by the city council. He escaped from prison.
Public Safety Sgt. Cindy Barkley said in a statement, “Collier has reportedly sent a text message to the victim with a fraudulent government file attached. The document was a fraudulent marriage annulment. According to Collier’s previous employer, the Borger police, he is also an ordained minister.
The story started when an Amarillo woman named Cecily Steinmetz said she was Collier‘s mistress posted on Facebook on Tuesday about her alleged engagement. The post prompted Kristi Shaffer, another woman who said she was involved with Collier, to come forward and reveal that the chief had also proposed to her. Collier’s own Facebook page has since disappeared.
Steinmetz wrote on Facebook, “Chief Jason Collier lives a double / triple life. I was his girlfriend until yesterday. He lied to me and gave me false annulment when I found out he was married. I also heard about a second girlfriend last night, Kristi. He lied to us, our children, and asked us both to marry him. “
She said he would visit her in Amarillo as a police officer. To convince her that they were indeed about to get married, police chief sent Steinmetz a photo of an annulment via Instagram, a screenshot shows. When she inquired at the 108th District Court where Collier claimed he had filed it, the court had no file.
Steinmetz said to KACR, “He was like, ‘Well, you know, I’ll get you the annulment,’ and he said, ‘Wait a minute.’ I was like, “Okay, you know, show me then,” and he sent that to me. And I told him, I said, “Well, I’m not going to kid this.”
Speaking to KACR, 108th District Judge Doug Woodburn said, “There is no agreement under that name or under that name. Our cause numbers are completely different … My court is followed by the letter E. It’s fake. “