Investigations at the Boise Police Department
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The City of Boise has filed a response to a lawsuit filed by former Office of Police Accountability Director Jesus Jara late last year, largely denying Jara’s claims and asking for a jury to decide the case.
The city’s lawyer, Erika Judd of Jones Williams Fuhrman Gourley, told a court that “certain allegations contained in the plaintiff’s complaint are untrue, and/or certain allegations containing legal conclusions that do not warrant responses. Defendant denies each and every allegation in plaintiff’s complaint unless specifically admitted herein.”
You can read the full response, embedded below, or by clicking here.
The city’s response goes point-by-point through the complaint filed on behalf of Jara by Grady Hepworth of the Hepworth Law Offices. Other than provable factual matters like the city’s names and the existence of certain documents, the city either refuted, disagreed with characterization or noted that documents or emails “speak for (them)selves.”
Jara’s complaint said he was retaliated against by the city, and ultimately fired in a vote by the city council, because he undertook actions protected by the Idaho Whistleblower Act. But the city disagreed, saying its “employment decisions… were made for legitimate and nondiscriminatory business reasons.”
The city’s response said that if there were any damages to Jara, they were caused by his “own negligence, fault or legal responsibility” and that the city made good faith efforts to comply with all state and federal rules and laws. The city also said that Jara’s complaint was subject to the “doctrine of unclean hands,” which, according to Thomson Reuters, means that the party bringing the lawsuit “has engaged in inequitable behavior including fraud, deceit, unconscionability or bad faith.”
The city’s response said they wanted the judge to dismiss the case and reimburse the city’s legal fees.
Hepworth did not reply to BoiseDev’s request for comment on the complaint response, which was filed on Friday. The city also declined to comment.
The judge in the case has set a scheduling conference with the two sides for February 27th.
