Editor’s note: This story includes examples of profanity related to the story. Read at your discretion.
A Converse County Sheriff’s deputy has been disciplined following a profanity-laced tirade during an off-duty confrontation at his home in which he threatened a Douglas teen girl with arrest.
The incident, captured on video by the teen, reportedly stemmed from Deputy Ira Kinneberg's anger over 16-year-old Sage Leversee bringing his daughter home late on the night of Dec. 5 after a canceled sleepover.
The 37-second video is dark and only shows the driver’s side dash of the vehicle, but an agitated Kinneberg can be heard clearly.
“What do you got to say?” Kinneberg can be heard asking Leversee after approaching her car, in which she and his daughter were sitting outside his home. “You stupid f***ing moron. Get your bitch ass out of here. Don’t ever come on this property ever again.”
“OK,” the girl answers.
"If you come back on here just like your other dumb ass f***ing idiots, I'll have you arrested. So, get the f*** out of here and don’t ever f***ing set foot on this f***ing property again,” he says, raising his voice.
It doesn’t stop there. He goes on to tell the girl: “You can smirk, you can whatever, get the f*** out of here you stupid bitch — now! Leave! F***ing piece of s***."
'That Is Not My Fault'
Sage Leversee told Cowboy State Daily that she did not provoke the confrontation and did not understand why Kinneberg directed his anger at her.
“I know he was upset because his daughter was not answering her phone,” she said in an email. “But that is not my fault.”
Christa Leversee, who is Sage’s mother, filed an abuse of authority complaint against Kinneberg with the Converse County Sheriff’s Office, claiming he used his status as a deputy to intimidate her daughter.
“Him threatening her with arrest, I feel, was him using the fact that he works for the sheriff’s department,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “I don't care if he is a cop or works at McDonald’s, no grown adult has a right to speak to a 16-year-old child like that for any reason.”
In a Dec. 16 email to Christa Leversee from Converse County Undersheriff Chris Walsh, he informs her that the agency looked into the allegations about Kinneberg and that they were substantiated.
“After a thorough investigation, we have determined that your complaint is founded,” Walsh says in the email, adding that Kinneberg was formally disciplined.
Walsh declined to disclose what disciplinary action was taken due to privacy and personnel regulations.
He write to Christa Leversee that the agency does “hold all deputies to a high standard of conduct and intetrity, and we are committed to addressing any violations accordingly."
Reached by phone on Friday, Walsh said he was prohibited from discussing the matter because law enforcement disciplinary records are confidential under Wyoming law.
Benefit Of The Doubt
Kinneberg did not respond to a phone call or email.
Police are often given the benefit of the doubt when disputes arise between citizens and officers about the nature of their encounters, according to a November study published by the International Journal of Police Science & Management.
“Scholars have found that police misconduct has deleterious downstream effects, including decreased citizen trust and engagement with police, which can suppress citizen collaboration and in turn, lead to increases in crime,” the study states.
Theron L. Bowman, chief executive officer of The Bowman Group, a public safety consulting firm in Arlington, Texas, that works with law enforcement agencies nationwide on accountability and professional standards, said the incident involving Kinneberg highlights broader issues agencies must consider beyond the immediate encounter.
“Off-duty doesn’t mean off-standard,” said Bowman, who has a doctorate degree in urban and public information. “When profanity is used, and authority is perceived to be used improperly, agencies must look beyond a single incident and examine supervision and accountability.
"Discipline alone doesn’t restore trust and confidence — consistent standards, transparency, and follow-through do.”
Christa Leversee questioned the thoroughness of the sheriff’s office investigation, noting that Kinneberg’s daughter, who is 16 and is a central witness to events leading up to the confrontation, was not interviewed.
“I can in no way justify how he (Kinneberg) spoke to (Sage) that night simply for taking his daughter home,” she wrote in a follow-up email to Walsh. “I hope that you and Ira understand the anger and fear I felt for my daughter hearing him talk to her like that.
"Also, the fear that she felt when a grown adult who is a cop talked to her in that manner.”
Leading Up To Confrontation
Text messages provided by Christa Leversee show that at 9:48 p.m. on Dec 5, he explicitly gave his daughter permission to spend the night with Sage Leversee.
About an hour later after his daughter failed to respond to his message, Kinneberg appeared to reverse course.
“Where are you at?” he texted his daughter, warning that his “patience is wearing very thin” and that he was “getting ready to call law enforcement.”
When his daughter eventually replied and explained that her phone had been charging, Kinneberg told her he was “holding my temper right now” and that she needed to return home, adding that her “friends need to stay away from me.”
Sage Leversee said Kinneberg was standing on the porch when she and his daughter pulled up to his house after 11 p.m.
As he walked toward her car, she activated her cellphone’s video camera.
Sage Leversee also said the Dec. 5 incident was not an isolated outburst.
She said she was present during a November confrontation at Kinneberg’s home in which he allegedly threatened to pull another teen from a truck and beat him after he brought Kinneberg’s daughter home late from a movie in Casper.
Christa Leversee said the confrontation has left her daughter fearful of future interactions with law enforcement — not just with Kinneberg, but with the sheriff’s office as a whole.
“Sage was scared after that happened,” she said. “She fears anytime a sheriff gets behind her in town that it’s him.
"She does not trust that she will be treated fairly if she ever gets pulled over by any Converse County Sheriff’s deputy because of how he treated her and acted.”
Scott Schwebke can be reached at scott@cowboystatedaily.com.
