Caldwell accused of hiding, mischaracterizing investigation into police chief
With the settlement of a $1.5 million lawsuit against Caldwell Police Chief Rex Ingram finalized, attorneys for the former police officer who brought claims of sexual harassment are asking for the outside investigation into those allegations to be publicized.
For 18 months, Allison Butler endured “harassment, discrimination and possessive punishment” from Ingram, court filings published this month alleged. When it was clear that the chief wouldn’t relent, her attorneys wrote, she complained to then-Caldwell Mayor Jarom Wagoner — someone “she trusted to hold the chief accountable.”
Instead, the city, including Wagoner, went “out of their way to hide the findings from the investigation,” wrote one of Butler’s attorneys, Erika Birch. The city and the mayor misrepresented the investigation’s findings and misled the public — including their own employees — into believing the probe didn’t support the accusations against the police chief, Butler’s attorneys asserted.
Ingram, who took over the department’s top job in 2022, told the Idaho Statesman last month that he strongly denies any wrongdoing, adding that the settlement included no admission of liability, fault or wrongdoing on his part or on the part of the police department.
Butler sued the city and its police department in February 2025. Within 24 hours of her lawsuit, the city — led by then-Mayor Wagoner — worked to coordinate a statement and news conference to “show solidarity” with the chief, according to an email Wagoner sent to City Council members asking them on Feb. 7, 2025, to attend the last-minute event.
He added that the news conference would need to happen that day to “stay ahead of the narrative,” according to the email, which was included in the court filings.
The email, sent to all of the council members, also contained a draft of the statement that would be released, which used stronger language than what was read to the public. The initial statement said the lawsuit wasn’t factual and was “based on misunderstandings and mischaracterizations” of the chief’s actions, according to Wagoner’s email.
Butler’s attorneys argued that the public has been “fed a false narrative,” adding that the city wants to protect that narrative by “precluding a full, transparent public record” and keeping the outside investigation confidential. That inquiry was conducted by Doug Plass, of Idaho Employment Lawyers.
The city has argued that the investigative materials are personnel files and that publicizing those records would “undermine the confidentiality of” the investigative process. Though releasing a report into the alleged misconduct of a police chief could be in the public interest, it shouldn’t be releasable just because he’s a public employee, the city’s attorneys said.
“If disclosing such an investigative report is in the public’s interest simply because this is a public employee, then there is no reason why the public disclosure of the disciplinary actions of every public employee in the state is not also in the public’s interest,” the city’s attorneys wrote. “And the question then becomes whether a public employee has given up any expectation to privacy in their employment when it comes to misconduct, whether alleged or proven.”
Caldwell Mayor Eric Phillips told the Idaho Statesman in an interview that he isn’t a part of the attorney’s fight to keep the records confidential, but that he’d leave the decision on whether to release the records to the presiding judge.
He has seen the outside investigation report, he added, but can’t speak to the contents because of pending ligation. City Council members also have been given an opportunity to review the outside investigation, though Phillips couldn’t say who had read the materials.
He said he’s glad this lawsuit is almost behind the city. Phillips said by phone that he wants to get back to the “good business of Caldwell.”
“Serving the community. Serving the citizens. Fixing roads, sidewalks. Working with pedestrian safety, budget — all the things,” he said. “It will be nice one day once all this is past us, whatever that looks like.”
Attorneys representing the city have until the end of the month to respond to the most recent court filings. It then will be up to the presiding judge to decide whether the report should be released publicly.
Concerns surrounding Ingram date back years, lawsuits say
Concerns regarding Ingram — the city’s second-highest-paid employee at $185,432 annually — arose in January 2024 after an internal complaint from Butler prompted Wagoner to direct the city’s HR director, Shelli Boggie, to investigate the allegations.
Those allegations wouldn’t be publicized until February 2025, when Butler‘s lawsuit was filed. Much of the attention at that time wasn’t on the chief but on two former officers, Joey Hoadley and Ryan Bendawald, who were investigated and then indicted by federal authorities on various charges.
Ingram, at the time, said he was hired to “completely change the culture” at the Caldwell Police Department. He took over at a turbulent time and said he focused his energy on bringing the agency into the 21st century through needed training, conferences and events.
All of those changes were possible because of an increased budget. Since his appointment, the department’s budget — primarily funded through property taxes — has doubled.
But behind the scenes, employees were raising concerns about how the chief ran the agency, according to several lawsuits filed against the city.
Two former police officers, Nathan Douthit and Benjamin Heinrich, wrote in lawsuits that they “looked forward to a brighter future” when the city hired Ingram. Instead, under the chief’s leadership, the police department “is in turmoil,” their lawsuits read.
“It has become increasingly clear that any officer that questions Ingram’s conduct or expenditures of public funds almost immediately faces internal investigation and, ultimately, termination,” Douthit and Heinrich’s lawyer, Kevin Dinius, wrote in their lawsuits.
Douthit sued in November 2024 after he said he was placed on administrative leave — and then fired — “because he dared question” the chief’s conduct, according to his lawsuit. He asked to meet with the mayor to discuss his concerns about the agency’s increased spending back in May 2024, but that meeting never happened.
Instead, he said, the day after sending the email to the mayor, he was placed on administrative leave over accusations he was making “disparaging remarks” toward the chief and other department administrators, according to the lawsuit. He was fired in August 2024.
Heinrich also accused Ingram of misusing public funds for his own travel and accommodations. In his lawsuit, Heinrich, who is married to Butler, said he was wrongfully terminated for exercising his right to free speech after he posted flyers downtown petitioning for the removal of Ingram “for his acts of corruption.”
Idaho State Police closed an investigation into Ingram’s spending after an outside prosecutor tapped to investigate the allegations said there was no crime. Heinrich and others posted the flyers throughout the city in February 2025, calling for Ingram’s dismissal. Idaho Dispatch, a conservative news outlet, published an image of the flyers, which pictured Ingram with the words “FIRE PREDATOR & THIEF CHIEF REX INGRAM.”
In February 2023, Heinrich and Butler were given written reprimands and suspended without pay for failing to disclose their romantic relationship, with Ingram allegedly telling Heinrich that this was going to be “the most expensive” relationship he’d ever had, according to Butler’s lawsuit.
Ingram given two-day suspension, discipline letter shows
From Butler’s first interaction with Ingram, her lawsuit said, he “engaged in a pattern and practice of inappropriate, gender-based, sexual, possessive and retaliatory behavior.” He also commented on her appearance, calling her and another female employee “smoking hot chicks,” the lawsuit said.
By January 2024, Butler said she thought she was being set up to be fired, according to her lawsuit, so she reported the allegations to Wagoner. That’s when the city retained Plass to conduct an outside investigation. Plass interviewed over a dozen witnesses and reviewed 26 exhibits, according to the court filings.
He eventually compiled those findings into a report, which Boggie reviewed, leading her to recommend Ingram’s termination, the filings said. Instead, the chief was suspended for two days without pay, according to an April 2024 disciplinary letter sent by Wagoner.
The letter, which was initially written by Boggie, was modified by Wagoner to exclude several of the sustained investigative findings, according to a lawsuit Boggie filed after she was not reappointed to her job. In their court filings, Butler’s attorneys called the letter “a gross mischaracterization” of the outside investigation’s findings.
Wagoner wrote that the allegations the chief engaged in “acts of female gender discrimination/harassment” weren’t substantiated. The investigation’s findings didn’t support “a level of illegal harassment or discrimination,” he wrote.
However, some of the chief’s actions showed poor professional judgment, he added, which was likely the result of “developing personal relationships with subordinate employees that blurred the lines between friendships and supervisory professional relationships.” Specifically, Ingram was reprimanded for allowing two employees, Butler and his former executive assistant, Gabriela Gudino, to baby-sit his children, and inviting them to Boise State football games.
“You are a valued leader in the city, and I have high expectations that you will address these areas of concern and use it as guidelines for moving forward,” Wagoner wrote to Ingram.
