Doyle lawsuits settled

QUINCY - Quincy agreed to a settlement agreement designed to end several federal, Washington and California cases filed by a former police officer.

The city's insurance agency and the city will split a $250,000 payment to former Quincy police officer Aaron Doyle. The insurance agency is paying $137,500 and the city is paying $112,500. In return, Doyle agrees to drop his two federal civil lawsuits, his two Grant County cases, his case at the state Public Employment Relations Commission and any other cases filed by Doyle against the city.

Neither side admitted to any wrongdoing in the case, according to the agreement. The agreement also calls for the city to return records about Doyle's previous employment for the sheriff's office in Sierra County, Calif.

City Administrator Tim Snead said the city decided to settle with the former officer because it would be better than going through hearings on public records requests. The hearings were part of the two federal lawsuits filed against the city.

The center of Doyle's legal actions revolved around two federal lawsuits. The first claimed  that former Police Chief Bill Gonzales, a former sergeant and a current sergeant retaliated against him following his reports on two incidents. One reportedly involved a friend of the former police chief, the second reportedly involved a former sergeant, according to the complaint.

Doyle claimed he was denied a promotion to a sergeant's position, eliminated a K-9 program Doyle was working on, and was denied a position on the Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team (INET), according to court records.

The former officer filed a second federal civil lawsuit after he was fired from the police department, claiming he was wrongfully terminated, according to court records. Doyle claimed his initial federal lawsuit triggered another set of retaliation.

Doyle's attorney, Garth Dano, argued the officer was removed from his position on INET and a less qualified officer was put into place, according to court records. Doyle claimed Snead, Police Chief Richard Ackerman, Police Capt. Gene Fretheim and City Attorney Allan Galbraith conspired to retaliate by starting an internal investigation, according to the complaint. Ackerman placed the officer on administrative leave, and held a hearing on Feb. 18, 2011.

The city alleged Doyle didn't file paperwork associated with his work as an officer, including six police reports dating back to 2008, not returning a telephonic search warrant and not modifying a citation, according to a Quincy police investigation.

The investigation alleged Doyle lied to co-workers and superiors when they asked about the paperwork, recording people without their consent, failing to return an expired Washington State Driver's License and an identification card he confiscated, failing to clean his gun, keeping ammo for a police-issued rifle in his car while he was working and leaving his sidearm unattended on a chair in the break room, according to the report.

Prior to the settlement, the city sent a letter to Doyle through Dano, stating, "The city will not tolerate any unlawful retaliation against any of its employees and to the extent you feel like you were retaliated against the city is truly sorry."

"Your separation from employment with the city was unfortunate and difficult for everyone involved," according to the letter. "We all can learn lessons from a matter like this. The city has made changes in its operation to ensure the continued fairness to all employees in the disciplinary process. This includes further training of command staff, use of outside investigators when needed, and taking precaution to make sure that all internal affairs investigations are done in a manner that protects the employees' rights."

The city acknowledged that Doyle led the department in driving under the influence arrests, according to the letter. The city received an award for its effective enforcement of driving under the influence laws in part due to Doyle's arrests. Dano could not be reached for comment.