Former Boise police chief drops lawsuit against sergeant who’d sued him. What we know
Former Boise Police Chief Ryan Lee withdrew his lawsuit against a Boise police sergeant, court records show.
The lawsuit, in which Lee said Boise Police Sgt. Kirk Rush tried to derail his law-enforcement career by falsely accusing Lee of injuring his neck, was filed last month, a day after Rush sued Lee for injuring his neck during a police demonstration.
The months of dueling lawsuits between the two ended when Lee’s attorneys withdrew his lawsuit on Tuesday, Nov. 21.
Bill Mauk, an attorney representing Lee, said by phone that the case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning Lee could refile the lawsuit or repackage it with additional claims in the future. Mauk filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which was accepted by the judge.
“If you look at the complaint in this case, we were without a substantial amount of information at the time the suit was filed for a variety of reasons,” Mauk said. “The city had not disclosed a bunch of information, Rush hadn’t disclosed a bunch of information. As we go forward there may be other information that’s revealed that may impact a judgment about whether to reopen the case from Mr. Lee’s standpoint.”
When asked if the dismissal was the end of the saga between Rush and Lee, Mauk said maybe.
Lee’s lawsuit alleged that Rush “engaged in a course of conduct intentionally calculated to impair and/or terminate Ryan Lee’s employment as chief of police and effectively ruin his career in law enforcement.” It also said other individuals assisted Rush to try to oust Lee from the department.
The lawsuit from Rush against Lee and the city is still pending, according to court records. Rush’s lawsuit alleges Lee injured him and the city failed to properly investigate Lee’s conduct.
Rush said in his lawsuit that he was injured after the neck-hold demonstration and had a “cervical neck sprain” and “multiple bulging discs.”
In an email, Rush’s attorney Erika Birch said Lee’s lawsuit was frivolous and “should never have been filed.”
“In our view (it) was just another act of aggression and retaliation against Sgt. Rush and an abuse of our court system,” Birch said.
She said Rush and his attorneys plan to seek sanctions against Lee.
The lawsuit’s dismissal was first reported by the Idaho Press.
This story was originally published November 28, 2023 at 5:22 PM.
