Maes denies story that he was the Barney Fife of Liberal KS

25 years ago, now GOP gubernatorial candidate Dan Maes, worked for the police department in Liberal, Kansas. The question is, was Maes a good cop who was wronged by the system for doing his job or a dim wit with a gun who managed to screw up a case by bragging to his future in-laws?

From the Denver Post: A former head of detectives from the Liberal, Kan., Police Department said Thursday that Maes in 1985 let slip to a member of the Andrade family — soon to be Maes' in-laws — that police were investigating a football bookmaking operation run out of the family home.

Sonny Ralston, 67 and now chief of police in nearby St. John, Kan., said the slip-up cost the department the investigation, which Ralston oversaw. No arrests were made. No charges were filed.

From an Associated Press interview with Maes:

Dan Maes says he felt like former New York cop Frank Serpico when he helped investigate an alleged gambling ring as a police officer in Kansas in the 1980s, only to have his comrades turn against him.

Maes told the AP that the events began in 1985 when he discovered evidence of what he believed was a gambling ring at the home of his then-girlfriend's parents.

A month later, Maes recalled, a police captain ordered him to a secret meeting with two Kansas Bureau of Investigation agents at a motel to tell them about the alleged gambling ring. Maes told the AP he was "curious and very scared" when he knocked on the motel door and was ordered to "take off your gun, take off your tie, and you get comfortable" while he talked to the KBI agents.

"In my mind, all I can see is Serpico. Remember Serpico? He walks up to a door, knocks, and a gun gets stuck in his face. That's what's going through my mind," he said.