Jared Wright is running to replace representative Laura Bradford for the House District 54 seat. But before his decision to run, he was a police officer with the Fruita Police Department.

Now, he says the department's recent allegations against him are just a way to get him off the force and out of office.

"The police chief did not want to keep me employed while running for office," Wright said.

Wright held a news conference on Monday to address the allegations about him being investigated by his former employer--the Fruita Police Department.

"Let me be clear, this is not a brady issue, and my integrity is intact," Wright said."This whole ordeal is about me being 17 minutes late for work and a vindictive police chief scrounging for any grounds to end my employment."

"Cheif Angelo is going to have to do some explaining," Wright's attorney Mike Holmes said. "He triggered something that I'm calling an abuse of discretion and possibly an abuse of the process."

Wright says since he announced he'd be running for office back in March, the city of Fruita did not want to keep him employed.

"At the first meeting, Jared tried to resign he thought to heck with this and said I'm just going to resign," Holmes said. "Chief Angelo actually talked him out of resigning saying this was no big deal."

"I resigned from the Fruita Police Department on July 13th to focus my full attention on my campaign for House District 54," Wright said.

But before Wright resigned, the police department filed an internal affairs investigation on him.

He was called in on June 20th for allegations of being late to work, failure to show up to work and being insubordinate with a supervisor.

"I had been a few minutes late on June 8th which I freely admitted and apologized for," Wright said.

As for the other allegations, he says they were untrue.

"This was quickly proven false by courthouse records and witnesses," Wright said. "The insubordination claim was also found as groundless."

Wright says the Fruita Police Chief is punishing him for not having a "perfect, photographic memory."

"He's trying to make it look like his resignation was because he thought he'd done something wrong but that is not the case," Holmes said.

"I simply do not have time for these wasteful distractions while seeking to serve Western Colorado as a state legislator," Wright said.

Wright says he doesn't believe this will affect his plans on winning the election.