DENVER (CN) — A former Colorado fire chief asked a 10th Circuit panel Tuesday to revive his lawsuit against the Florissant Fire Protection District, which he says fired him for aiding an investigation into fraud during the 2023 board of directors’ election.
“This is only the second time he spoke to law enforcement in his multidecade career — this was not something he normally did,” argued attorney Grady Block, who represented former fire chief Erik Holt on appeal.
While serving as the fire chief for the Florissant Fire Protection District, Holt says he reported evidence of election fraud involving members of the district’s board of directors to law enforcement in May 2023.
Holt provided the local district attorney’s office with video footage of the firehouse during the election, claiming he did so off duty, as a private citizen.
Citing a lapsed liability insurance policy that left the district unprotected for six days, the board of directors fired Holt the next month.
Holt sued the district in July 2023. U.S. District Judge Nina Wang, a Joe Biden appointee, granted the government summary judgment in March 2025. Holt appealed, initially representing himself, but later joined by Block who practices with Mountain States Legal Foundation in Lakewood, Colorado.
U.S. Circuit Judge Robert Bacharach questioned where Holt’s duties as a fire chief stopped and his actions as a private citizen began.
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