Another Boise police officer says she was fired after speaking out against supervisor
A third Boise police officer says she was given the option of resigning or being fired after she reported witnessing a supervisor put a fellow trainee in a chokehold.
On Tuesday, Boise lawyer Joe Filicetti filed a tort claim with the city on behalf of Sierrna Berg, president of her class of police trainees. The tort claim alleges that on March 7, the academy class stopped at Nutrishop, 1265 S. Capitol Blvd., to use a machine that measures body composition. Officer Josh Kincaid asked a trainee for his results, and when the trainee refused to comply, Kincaid put him in a chokehold, according to the claim.
A tort claim must be filed ahead of a lawsuit against a government agency and contains allegations of wrongdoing that have not been substantiated.
In an email, Boise Police Department spokeswoman Haley Williams said the department could not comment on matters of pending litigation.
Trainees Joshua Keyser, 33, and Jeffrey Triplett, 34, asked Berg to report the matter to police academy instructor Nate Davis, according to the claim. The tort claim alleges that Davis avoided contacting his supervisors about the incident or alerting the department’s internal affairs staff.
Berg alleges that after this incident, she began to find that her training records — which score trainees daily on their performance — had been modified. Berg alleges that body cam video footage of her training shows she met the expectations of the department. But her supervisor’s reports from September, October and November indicated otherwise, according to Filicetti.
Filicetti is also representing Keyser and Triplett, who also alleged that they had their training records modified. They filed a similar tort claim Nov. 4.
“There are things that were turned from being 1’s or 2’s — which is passable — to ‘not responding to training,’” Filicetti told the Statesman then. “They were modified after the fact to justify getting rid of people.”
Filicetti said that following the filing of the original tort claim, BPD began to conduct an internal investigation into the claims of Keyser and Triplett.
Beyond the changes to her training records, Berg also alleges that she was was sexually harassed by another supervisor.
In a phone interview with the Statesman, Filicetti said that Berg was asked by her supervisors about her personal life and pressed about a rumor regarding her marriage.
They also told her the bracelets she wore did not conform “with police culture” and asked her to lower the pitch of her voice for the police radio. “That’s my voice,” she responded, according to Filicetti.
BPD did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the sexual harassment allegations.
Berg also say in the tort claim that on Nov. 13, she overheard her training officer, Cameron Kolos, speaking with another officer, telling him that Berg had “no business in law enforcement” and that he would do “whatever it takes to wash her out.”
Four days later, on Nov. 17, Captain Matt Jones requested to meet with Berg. She claims that she repeated to him what she had heard Kolos say. Berg alleges that Jones told that her she needed to complete another four weeks of training, which would have included repeating two weeks of her earlier training. She asked Jones to look at her videos rather than assign her more weeks of training as punishment for poor scores, which she said were false.
But Jones told her that her refusal to comply with the additional weeks of training constituted “insubordination” and that she could be terminated or resign, according to the claim. Berg left the department on Nov. 18.
Unless the city reaches an agreement with the three officers, Filicetti said he will sue on their behalf. A longtime Boise lawyer, Filicetti specializes in police cases and served as legal counsel for the Boise Police Department from 1996 to 1998.
“By the time we’re done we’re going to lay that thing open,” he said. “Someone needs to get fired. You can’t lie on a police report and keep your job.”
This story was originally published November 27, 2019 at 5:29 PM.
