The total amount of the lawsuit settlement between the Riverton Police Department’s first enrolled Northern Arapaho officer, and the city he sued was $5,000, according to a copy of the settlement the City of Riverton released Wednesday to Cowboy State Daily.
Dated Sept. 19, and signed by former Riverton Police Department Detective Billy Whiteplume and his attorney Katherine Strike, the settlement promises Whiteplume $5,000 from the Local Government Liability Pool – an insurance program for local governmental entities – and stipulates that Whiteplume won’t be suing the city or police department again.
Whiteplume sued the city and police department in federal court in April, accusing the department of racial discrimination and of fostering a hostile work environment. A coworker had made a racially-charged joke that Whiteplume found troubling, according to Whiteplume’s lawsuit.
Disputed Duties
The detective had also been reprimanded multiple times for trying to coordinate government and other resources to help get the city’s transients, to housing or shelter of some kind.
Whiteplume alleged that the department’s former chief agreed to him doing those things on the job, while his supervisor and another ranking agent reprimanded him for it.
The city and department maintain their innocence, as they have throughout the lawsuit.
This settlement is just to avoid the time and expense of going to trial, the settlement says.
“Neither party has made any admission of wrongdoing or concessions as to the strength of their respective positions,” says the settlement. “The defendants, including but not limited to the Riverton Police Department and its law officers, have expressly denied any and all wrongdoing of any kind, including an express denial of the alleged discrimination and an express denial of any liability whatsoever.”
Whiteplume agreed not to sue the city or department on “any and all claims, demands, liabilities, actions or causes of action, including but not limited to those claims relating to (this case), as well as any claims or causes of action… arising from the acts or omissions taken by Defendants,” says the document.
Each party is responsible for his or its own attorney fees.
Whiteplume declined Wednesday to comment, saying he’ll have an official comment at a later date.
Back In 2021
Whiteplume’s settlement amount came out to much less than a 2021 lawsuit by another spurned employee of the Riverton Police Department, which settled for $135,000, according to the man who brought the lawsuit.
Because the department has seen so much turnover since then, nearly all the people mentioned in the older lawsuit are no longer at the Riverton Police Department.
Former RPD Officer Scott Gardner sued RPD in federal court in 2020, accusing its now-retired former chief, the now-former city administrator, and the city of depriving him of due process when firing him. He also accused them of breach of contract and of using deficient policies and procedures.
The chief at that time claimed Gardner had violated the department’s “integrity” and report-writing policies and fired him, after Gardner asked the human resources department a question about a captain’s actions, according to court documents.
U.S. District Court Judge Scott Skavdahl, in a 2021 summary judgment upholding Gardner’s claims as fit for a trial, said there was enough evidence in the record “for a reasonable jury to find Mr. Gardner’s dismissal was arbitrary or pretextual.”
Meaning, the judge had seen evidence that Gardner was fired randomly or conveniently, rather than over an integrity or report-writing issue.
For Gardner, the case wasn’t about the money but about justice, he said.
“I had to go home and tell my children that the job I did there for nine years, the sacrifices I made in my family life for that department (were for it) to just throw me away, because they didn’t want to deal with the real issue,” Gardner told Cowboy State Daily on Wednesday.
At the end of his attorney’s fee and his more-than $20,000 in taxes, he roughly broke even with his losses from being fired, he said.
Doing Better
The department appears to be doing better lately, Gardner said.
He didn’t comment on Whiteplume’s suit specifically, saying he wasn’t there to watch the conflicts unfold.
But in his new role as a local sheriff’s deputy he has noticed improvements at the city in recent months, he said.
“I see good things. Obviously there are going to be problems that come up, because it was a mess,” he said. “The guys on the street… (they’re) good officers. They’re good people.”
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
