Spectators follow golfers to Hole 11 as they compete in the first day of the U.S. Amateur golf tournament at Colorado Golf Club in Parker, Colorado on August 14, 2023. (Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post)
A Denver businessman claims he was lunching with prospective buyers of his supplement company at the Colorado Golf Club in Parker when a manager accused him of breaking in and stealing liquor, then banished him from the club, scuttling the company’s sale.
“Brian Straight told (Cole) Evans he was not welcome on the property and that if needed he would call law enforcement to escort him off,” the latter’s Oct. 20 lawsuit alleges.
Evans owns Kiss Nutraceuticals in Denver, which makes dietary supplements. In May 2023, he was looking to sell that company to Shore Capital Partners out of Chicago “for a monetary value in excess of multiple eight figures,” according to his lawsuit against the country club.
So, he wined and dined the buyers, Evans recalls. That included a Nuggets playoff game on May 9 of that year — where, coincidentally, he ran into Straight, the club manager — and drinks at the Colorado Golf Club, where Evans was a member and the buyers were staying.
“Mr. Evans and the buyers invited two employees of the club, Jack Sims and Carter Motichka, to the cottages to discuss their business ventures,” Monday’s lawsuit explains. “Mr. Sims and Mr. Motichka took them up on the offer. After concluding their conversation with the buyers, Mr. Sims and Mr. Motichka invited Mr. Evans back to the clubhouse for a drink.”
“Mr. Evans was under the impression that these activities were sanctioned by the club and that he was not violating any rules,” according to the lawsuit, which claims that members sometimes drink in the clubhouse until 4 a.m. but that Evans only stayed until about 1 a.m.
It was the next day that Straight reportedly approached Evans at lunch and removed him.
An attorney for the club, Linda Knight at Spencer Fane, claims it has done nothing wrong.
“Colorado Golf Club denies the allegations in the complaint and that will be indicated in the forthcoming pleadings that we file with the court,” she said. “The board acted appropriately based on Mr. Evans’ conduct and in accordance with its membership plan and bylaws.”
Cole Evans. (File photo)
Evans’ lawsuit notes that he had run afoul of club rules before, by golfing with guests at a time when guests were not allowed, and claims “the club was looking to remove Mr. Evans” before the late night drinking incident finally “provided the board with an excuse” to do so.
The businessman says he was not provided a hearing before he was removed, in violation of club rules, and that the club’s board could not have voted to remove him in such short order, as required by bylaws. He claims the two employees who invited him to the clubhouse were fired a short time later, proof that they and not Evans were to blame for what happened.
Evans is asking Douglas County District Court Judge Stacy Guillon to reinstate him as a member of Colorado Golf Club and award him an unspecified amount of money for the scuttling of his business sale and for dues he paid in 2023 while appealing his expulsion.
Evans attended the private Kent Denver School in Cherry Hills Village and was a caddy at Cherry Hills Country Club for five years in the 2010s, according to his LinkedIn.
Evans and Kiss have often found themselves in court in recent years. Both are currently being sued in Denver by a lender for $328,000 and both were accused of posing as makers of hand sanitizer in 2020. They denied any wrongdoing but settled that case for $215,000. Evans also paid a $62,500 fine to the State of Colorado for misrepresenting the hand sanitizer.
On Oct. 6, Evans and Kiss paid a $1.2 million court judgment to the company’s former warehouse landlord at 4959-4969 Colorado Blvd. due to a breached lease. Following other recent Denver judgments, they owe $360,000 to a hemp supplier, $270,000 to an investor, $65,000 to a CBD maker, $39,000 to a lender, and $27,000 to a consulting firm.
In the Colorado Golf Club case, Evans is represented by attorney Stephen Scheffel of Thomas Scheffel & Associates in Denver. Scheffel and his client declined to discuss it.
