Former officer’s lawsuit against Boise Police, city alleges harassment, discrimination
A former Boise police officer was harassed and pushed out of the department after telling her higher-ups about a supervisor who allegedly put a trainee in a chokehold, according to a new federal lawsuit.
A complaint was filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court on behalf of Sierrna Berg, who alleges that she was the subject of discrimination and frequent harassment.
According to the suit — filed on April 2 — Berg was going through her POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) certification when she allegedly witnessed Officer Josh Kincaid put a trainee in a chokehold in March 2019. While at a Boise business to measure the trainees’ body compositions, Kincaid asked the trainee for his results. After the trainee refused to provide them, Kincaid put the trainee in a chokehold, according to the claim. The incident was described as “an illegal battery” in the federal complaint.
Two other former Boise police officers — Joshua Keyser and Jeffrey Triplett — also filed tort claims against the city regarding the same incident. Keyser has filed a lawsuit in connection with his claim, according to state court records, doing so on April 21 and naming the Boise Police Department and a number of ranking officers. The case is still active and unresolved.
Berg, who was the POST class president, said she filed a complaint with her supervisor, BPD Officer Nate Davis. However, the lawsuit claims Davis did not report the complaint to the department’s internal affairs division.
In an alleged act of sexist retaliation, rumors about Berg began to circulate through the department to discredit her, according to the suit. She reported this to supervisors.
Berg graduated with her POST certification in late May 2019 and began work on BPD’s field training officer program (or FTO), which, if completed, would give her a pay increase. After the rumors continued, Berg said she had a meeting with the FTO supervisor, BPD Sgt. Sean Stace.
“During the meeting Sergeant Stace condoned the malicious rumors circulating about Berg, and suggested, without any basis, that Berg’s alleged ‘issues at home’ may be ‘distracting’ her,” according to Berg’s lawsuit.
Stace allegedly encouraged Berg to drop out of the FTO program, but added that he couldn’t guarantee a spot for her if she returned.
Former officer says scores were ‘fabricated’
Berg later learned that she was being “prescribed” additional FTO training, a designation that carries “negative connotations” among fellow officers, according to the lawsuit. Stace allegedly told Berg that she was being “prescribed” because she was “very distracted with things going on at home.” She later texted a fellow officer to ask why she was being prescribed, prompting Stace to confront and yell at Berg at the department’s offices, the suit claims. It alleges that Stace scrutinized Berg’s FTO training more so than that of her male counterparts.
Berg filed a complaint to BPD Capt. Brian Lee and investigator Regina Fredericks regarding Stace’s behavior, and Fredericks apologized for the hostile work environment and promised to look into the matter, according to the lawsuit.
Two days after the meeting with Lee and Fredericks, Berg says she was pulled out of a briefing to speak with Stace and another sergeant. The two told Berg that she was failing the FTO program and showed Berg her evaluation scores. She says the scores were fabricated and inconsistent with her body camera footage, which is maintained in FTO training. She told Stace and the other sergeant that they should look at her body camera footage. Neither did so, the lawsuit says, and Berg was again “prescribed” more training.
The suit says she requested meeting with Lee regarding the evaluation scores and footage, but she found she was unable to access her evaluation.
Police trainees complain about chokehold incident
In early November, Berg learned that a tort claim filed by another trainee named her as a witness to the alleged chokehold. Her complaint says that she heard Stace and her training officer — Cameron Kolos — talking about her by name. She allegedly heard Kolos say, “Sierrna is a nice girl, but I will do whatever it takes to get rid of her,” according to the suit.
The same month, Berg’s legal counsel filed a tort claim with the city that included much of the claims that are in the lawsuit.
Berg later met with police Capt. Matt Jones and complained about a hostile work environment, to which Jones allegedly “responded dismissively.” Berg later insisted that there were other officers retaliating against her before Jones asked her to step out of the room.
The lawsuit indicates that while she was out of the room, Capt. Brian Lee, acting BPD Chief Ron Winegar and Burch walked in the room. She was then called inside and told that she was fired, effective immediately.
Berg seeking over $500,000 from city, Boise Police
The federal suit claims that the Boise Police Department violated both state and federal discrimination and retaliation laws. The suit demands that the case be tried in front of a jury and requests an amount of over $500,000 for Berg’s lost wages, including future wages. Berg also is asking that BPD pay her attorney fees.
Though the complaint names several members of the department, only the city of Boise and the Boise Police Department are listed as lawsuit defendants.
Police spokeswoman Haley Williams said in an email Tuesday that the department cannot comment on pending litigation.
The Boise City Attorney’s Office filed a response to the complaint last Friday, and mostly either outright denied allegations or indicated that the office had insufficient information to admit or deny allegations.
City attorneys asked that the complaint be dismissed with prejudice and that they be awarded money to cover fees.
Grady Hepworth, one of two attorneys representing Berg, told the Statesman on Tuesday that he found it noteworthy the city did not have sufficient information to respond to a number of allegations. Hepworth said the litigation process is still in the early stages. He called it a whistleblower case as well as a sex discrimination case.
Despite the harassment and toll on his client’s mental health, Hepworth said Berg wants to be reinstated to the police force. She has always wanted to be a police officer and serve the community, he said.
