Fired police overseer wants Boise mayor’s testimony. City lawyers resist. What they say

In a lawsuit from Boise’s former police oversight director, Boise officials are challenging requests that they testify on a quick timeline.

Lawyers for Jesus Jara, the former director of the Office of Police Accountability, have asked to question Police Chief Ron Winegar as well as Mayor Lauren McLean and her chief of staff. The city has asked to delay those last two interviews until after the November election.

The Boise City Council fired Jara last year, citing job performance problems. Jara then sued the city.

Here’s a Q&A on what’s happening.

Why is Jara upset with the city?

The director of the Office of Police Accountability was fired in December for allegedly breaking city policy by “randomly viewing” thousands of police body camera videos. Mayor Lauren McLean suspended Jara in early December, and the City Council voted to fire him later that month.

In a statement, McLean called Jara’s actions “unauthorized surveillance.”

“This is a serious violation of the privacy of our residents and a worrisome erosion of the trust we intended to build with the OPA model of oversight,” she said.

Three days after he was fired, Jara sued the city. He denied he had violated city policy, instead saying he had been retaliated against for investigating complaints against former Police Chief Ryan Lee and concerns about how internal investigations within the department were conducted.

What’s happened since?

Over the last couple of months, Jara’s attorney, Grady Hepworth, has attempted to schedule depositions with city officials to obtain pretrial testimony. This is known as the discovery phase of a lawsuit, when both parties seek evidence, all the while informing the other parties and the court of the kind of evidence they want.

On Aug. 4, Hepworth scheduled depositions with McLean, her Chief of Staff Courtney Washburn, Winegar and Council Member Luci Willits, according to court records.

Depositions are out-of-court statements given under oath by people involved in a case.

In response, the city has objected to some of Hepworth’s requests. Dan Williams, an attorney representing the city, has asked a judge to allow both the city and Hepworth to “designate certain private personnel information as confidential,” according to a memorandum filed this month. That would keep those records out of public view.

A second request from the city is to limit the scope of Winegar’s deposition. Hepworth asked Winegar to produce “any evidence, documents and all communications” related to “Officer Tim Green’s involvement in the off-duty shooting that occurred near Challis” in August 2020.

The Statesman has previously reported that Green, who joined the Police Department in 1994, was on vacation at a campground near Challis with other law enforcement officials from around Idaho when the off-duty chief of the Bonners Ferry Police Department, Brian Zimmerman, shot and killed a 73 year-old man, Russell Liddell.

Jara’s lawsuit mentions concerns Jara had while working at the city about the investigation of “an off-duty shooting that resulted in a death.”

Hepworth’s deposition request also asks for communications or other documents related to “allegations of excessive use of force or other violations of BPD procedure by Officer Tyson Cooper in the past six years.”

This spring, the Police Department released body-camera footage depicting the arrest of a 17-year-old Black youth in 2019. In the video, Cooper antagonized the youth, handcuffed him and threw him onto the sidewalk, according to previous Statesman reporting.

Green and Cooper did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent Friday through the department.

Williams has asked the court to prevent Jara’s legal team from getting such records, calling them “irrelevant to the present case.”

“Moreover, internal investigation records are highly confidential,” Williams wrote in a memo to the court. “As a result, the city now requests a protective order prohibiting the plaintiff from requesting these records or addressing the substance of the internal investigations of officers Green and Cooper at the deposition.”

Third, Williams asked to cancel or delay McLean’s deposition until after the November election, and to delay Washburn’s until after the election.

For McLean, Williams said the court should prohibit her getting deposed because it is an “apex deposition” — testimony from a high-level employee who might not have firsthand knowledge of the facts at issue. Williams said prior court decisions say generally that “high-ranking government officials are not subject to deposition absent extraordinary circumstances.”

If the court allows her to be questioned, Williams asked that it be delayed until after the November election.

“Both the mayor and Ms. Washburn are currently unusually busy managing the press of city business,” Williams wrote. “In addition, the mayor must also manage the additional work of engagements related to her reelection campaign. Following November 7, the two schedules will ease considerably and scheduling the depositions will not unduly burden the individuals.”

Depositions often take several hours or longer.

When were they supposed to be interviewed?

In a Sept. 26 filing, Williams said lawyers for Jara and the city met in early August to discuss evidence topics. Jara’s lawyers named the city officials they hoped to depose and filed official deposition notices two days later.

Winegar was asked to meet with Jara’s lawyers on Sept. 20, Washburn on Sept. 21, Willits on Sept. 29 and McLean on Oct. 11.

In September, before those dates, city lawyers communicated further with Jara’s legal team, reiterating the scheduling conflicts, according to Williams’ memo.

In response, an attorney for Jara replied that the attorney “understood Mayor McLean preferred to be deposed after the November election, but stated the city would need to file a motion for a protective order because he saw no reason to reschedule the subject depositions,” the memo said. The protective order would protect McLean from being deposed or postpone her interview.

Williams added that Jara’s attorney canceled the depositions of Washburn and Winegar days before they were to occur after Williams informed him rhat he had contracted COVID-19, but declined to cancel McLean’s October date.

It is unclear whether Willits, who was the only council member to vote against firing Jara, appeared for her scheduled deposition on Friday. She declined to comment.

“I do not feel like this office was set up for success,” Willits said in a statement after Jara was fired.

McLean’s spokesperson Maria Weeg declined to comment on the litigation. Hepworth also declined to comment.

A trial is scheduled for next June.