Boise officer says the ex-police chief forced him out. What a court just ruled

Former Boise Police Captain Tom Fleming didn’t want to retire until March 2024, he said in a lawsuit he filed against the city of Boise in 2022. But Fleming alleged he was forced to retire early after then-Chief Ryan Lee discriminated and retaliated against him, the lawsuit said.

Fleming’s lawsuit said Lee interfered with internal investigations, made “disparaging” comments about Fleming’s limp after he had knee-replacement surgery, and asked him about retirement plans, according to previous Statesman reporting. But U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill in Boise dismissed the lawsuit in 2024, writing that Fleming didn’t face “unendurable working conditions,” according to previous Statesman reporting.

Fleming and his lawyers appealed the decision, arguing in the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle in September that a jury should have been able to decide if he faced a hostile environment, which they say he did.

Erika Judd, representing the city of Boise, said Fleming left after he was offered a better job at Boise State University. “There was both a financial motivation to leave, but also a real tangible benefit to switch to his dream job,” Judd said during the Seattle hearing.

But the appellate court agreed with Fleming. In a Tuesday court filing, a three-judge panel reversed Winmill’s decision and sent the lawsuit back to the lower court for further proceedings.

“Though Fleming went through the appropriate governmental channels to report Chief Lee’s behavior, his reports went nowhere,” the appellate judges said in an unsigned order. “Chief Lee was able to retain his position and suffered no discernable consequences for his alleged transgressions.

“Fleming and his colleagues were left to fend for themselves against a boss who seemed to value loyalty above all else,” the court said. “Whether a reasonable person would find these working conditions so intolerable that he would feel compelled to resign presents a quintessential question of fact.”

Lee did lose his job in September 2022, three months after Fleming retired, when Mayor Lauren McLean asked for his resignation after internal complaints by multiple police officers were leaked. The city had been treating them as confidential personnel matters.

Spokesperson Maria Ortega confirmed that the city had received the decision and is considering next steps. She declined to comment further, citing pending litigation.

This lawsuit is one of the many issues that arose from Lee’s troubled tenure with the department. Before his 2022 resignation, nine officers had filed complaints against him.

In 2024, Boise settled a lawsuit from the former Office of Police Accountability Director Jesus Jara, who said he was fired in 2022 in retaliation for investigating those nine officers’ complaints. Boise paid just under $700,000 to settle the lawsuit, of which almost $240,000 were for legal fees.

Later that year, Boise settled a lawsuit brought by Boise Police Sgt. Kirk Rush who said that Lee injured him while demonstrating a neck hold during a training exercise. In that case, the city paid $850,000.

The Boise City Council approved $1,000 for city attorney Jayme Sullivan to attend the court proceedings in Seattle.

This story was originally published October 7, 2025 at 5:53 PM.