A chain of e-mails released Tuesday show Boulder County Sheriff Joe Pelle was the first to speculate that County Sheriffs of Colorado’s opposition to gun-control legislation might cause state lawmakers to refuse to carry a bill giving county elected officials a pay raise.

El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa released the e-mails circulated between members of the sheriffs’ trade organization to explain why he said pay raises were being “threatened” by Democratic leadership in the state Senate.

The e-mails date to mid February, when Pelle, a Democrat who was providing strategic advice for getting the salary bill introduced, reported from a meeting between the state’s salary commission and Senate President John Morse that the Colorado Springs Democrat was “fundamentally opposed to a salary bill.”

Pelle wrote to CSOC executive director Chris Olson: “There is speculation that we are being punished for the CSOC position on gun bills???”

Pelle said Tuesday that this speculation came from several sources, though he declined to name them when asked by The Denver Post.

In January, the association,which represents the state’s 62 elected sheriffs, released a position paper in opposition to gun-control measures proposed by Democrats. Over the weekend, Maketa appeared on a conservative radio show and alleged Democrats are holding hostage a possible pay raise as a result.

Morse, in an interview with The Denver Post Monday, said he opposed the idea of a pay raise bill and said he told the Democrats who were being lobbied to sponsor the measure that he would only allow it only if it had several Republican co-sponsors. Pelle had lined up several Democratic sponsors, the e-mails show.

“We don’t need to be voting for a late bill for a pay increase for elected officials at this point in our economy,” Morse said, noting no Republicans signed on as sponsors.

“The email chain also points out the true reason a salary bill has not been introduced — it lacks the support of Sheriff Maketa’s own party,” added Doug Schepman, a spokesman from Morse’s office.

Salaries for elected county officials is set by the legislature. As of Tuesday, no bill to increase those salaries had been filed.

The e-mails do corroborate Morse’s statement. But an e-mail from Pelle dated March 1 speculates Morse’s position “after the sheriff’s finish testifying on the gun bills … won’t change, but will get worse.”

Several members of CSOC on March 4 testified in opposition to a slew of Democratic sponsored gun bills being heard in committee meetings.

During the radio appearance, Maketa said he received an e-mail from an unnamed member of the County Sheriffs of Colorado saying Senate Democratic leadership wanted the sheriffs’ association to reconsider its opposition to ensure support for a pay-raise bill that has not yet been filed.

That e-mail, one of those released by Maketa, came from Olson. In it he said he had “been advised by a reliable source at the Capitol that the Dems are seriously not pleased with the CSOC positions on the gun bills, and given the potential for a real salary bill to be introduced as you shall see from a follow-up e-mail from Sheriff Pelle, support of Senate Bill 197 would put us in a more favorable light for salary bill support from the Dems.”

Olson could not be immediately reached for comment Tuesday, but SB 197 bans domestic offenders from possessing firearms, and passed the Senate Monday.

“As I see it, Senate Dems have made it known, ‘sheriffs, obey or no pay for you,’ ” Maketa said in a statement that accompanied the e-mails Tuesday. “The first word that comes to my mind is extortion.”

None of these e-mails name a specific lawmaker making such a threat.

Morse has decried the allegation, calling it “reprehensible.”

In a Facebook post Sunday, Maketa referred not to an email, but to a “message” purportedly delivered in person to a representative of the sheriffs’ association. But he still names no names.

“A message delivered verbally to a representative of the Colorado Sheriff’s Association basically stated that the Senate Dems are very upset with the Colorado Sheriffs opposing the gun legislation proposed by the Senate Democrats. This message insinuated that this could negatively affect the salary bill which has been delayed and put off by the Democrats with the excuse that they would expect bipartisan support,” Maketa wrote in the Facebook post.

Maketa has said he would push for Attorney General John Suthers to investigate. Suthers’ spokeswoman Carolyn Tyler said the office has not received a complaint from Maketa. “If we did, it would be handled by the local district attorney’s office.”

“There’s no excuse for lying to the public about communications between my office and the sheriff’s association,” Morse wrote in his own Facebook post on Tuesday.

Kurtis Lee: 303-954-1655, klee@denverpost.com or twitter.com/kurtisalee