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COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- The El Paso County Sheriff is answering allegations of misconduct as the race for sheriff heats up.

Sheriff Terry Maketa announced in January he would not seek a third term as sheriff. Then in February Maketa announced that a grassroots effort convinced him to run again.

Now an article in the Colorado Springs Independent lists a slew of accusations about Maketa and the way he runs the Sheriff's Office.

Maketa says the accusations are politically motivated and he stands behind the way he runs the Sheriff's Office.

Maketa spoke for nearly an hour on Thursday as he answered a laundry list of allegations made against his office in a newspaper article.

"I think you can take anything and leave certain facts out and leave certain things in and it can change the outlook or the picture from the public perception," Maketa said.

The allegations center around three employees:

The first is Jerald Day. That’s the Sheriff's Office detective who attempted suicide-by-cop last spring. Douglas County deputies were able to subdue Day without shooting him.

Now Day is a security technician at the county jail.

Maketa says he simply gave Day a second chance.        

"And the first comment he said to me was, 'If it will make it easier for you, I'll step down because this organization has been more than fair,'" said Maketa.

Maketa says he will continue to stand by Day and says he has been a model employee since the incident and continues to rebuild his life.

The second employee is Dorene Cardarelle. She was hired as a budget analyst but soon became comptroller for the entire Sheriff's Office.

The allegation is that she got special treatment because of a personal relationship with Maketa and was given the job even though she doesn’t have the required degree in accounting.

Maketa says county policy allows for a combination of education and experience to substitute for the degree. And he says her $95,000 a year salary covers what used to be two full-time positions.

"A lieutenant that was comptroller at the time was earning $75,000 and the grant writer $50[,000] or $52[,000], so combined we were spending $120,000 for that function. Today we are spending $95,000," Maketa said.

The final employee is Tiffany Huntz. She is a dispatch supervisor who has been the focus of more than one Internal Affairs investigation and has posed nude for photos on the Internet.

Again the allegation is that Maketa has protected Huntz because he has an inappropriate relationship with her.

The Independent article implies that Maketa has had affairs with both Cardarelle and Huntz.

"I’ve heard those rumors many times. I don’t know where they come from. No, there is no truth to that," Maketa said.

Maketa says he'd been willing to take a polygraph test on these allegations but only if his accusers will do the same.