The city of Longmont has paid the $1,592.72 E-470 toll bill a woman faced, responding to reporting by The Gazette on the toll charges that accrued after a Longmont police sergeant used a license plate stolen from the woman.

Sgt. Stephen Schulz, who also is the president of the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police, took the license plate from the evidence and property room at the Longmont Police Department and put the plate on his undercover take-home police truck, records show.

Schulz, who also was the acting sergeant over the Longmont Police Department’s narcotics unit, circumvented proper protocol for undercover license plates, according to a May 5th internal police memo. That memo described Schulz’ actions “to be very alarming and out of alignment with the proper practice of having the state issue special license plates for undercover police officers.”

Police leave disabled Colorado woman with nearly $1,600 toll bill after using her stolen license plate (copy)

For Debra Romero, the toll bills had left her without the use of a vehicle. The 52-year-old Westminster woman, who has had two back surgeries, could not pay the nearly $1,600 bill the Longmont police department amassed while using her stolen license plate. The E-470 toll system had refused to waive the toll charges even after Romero filed a report last October with the Adam’s County Sheriff’s Office declaring her license plate as stolen.

In May, the registration on her current vehicle expired, and the state of Colorado barred her from renewing her registration until the toll bill was paid.

Longmont police ended up with the license plate after it was found in an abandoned vehicle they seized. Instead of destroying the plate, Schulz, who did not return telephone messages seeking comment, put it to use on his undercover truck.

Longmont City Manager Harold Dominguez and Longmont Deputy Police Chief Jeff Satur said the city intended to pay off the toll bill months ago, but a check never was issued to do so. They moved quickly to ensure the toll bill was paid off by the city after The Gazette contacted them about the license-plate situation.

“I feel such relief, and now I can go get my tags,” Romero wrote in an email to The Gazette after the city officials contacted her to tell her the city had paid the toll bill.

Schulz has faced other issues at the Longmont Police Department. He recently returned from several months of paid administrative leave. The city retained the Denver-based Investigations Law Group to investigate the narcotic’s unit workplace environment and had placed Schulz and three other officers on administrative leave.

Another officer had accused Schulz of using an epithet used against homosexuals to describe the way the officer looked for wearing a mask to protect himself and others from the COVID-19 virus, records show.

Dominguez declined to discuss the outcome of the external investigation or how the city responded, stating the matters were personnel issues he could not discuss. After the external investigation, the narcotics unit was disbanded and folded into other police operations. Schulz has returned to work and is is now working in a unit that investigates gang crimes. He remains president of the Colorado Fraternal Order of Police, the largest police advocacy group in Colorado.