A sergeant and a detective are threatening to take the Vancouver Police Department to court for gender discrimination, less than a year after they and other women testified about systemic misogyny.
A Vancouver police car is pictured March 14, 2019, in Vancouver, Wash.
Bryan M. Vance / OPB
In a recent tort claim, Sgt. Julie Ballou and Det. Miranda Skeeter said they have faced backlash for testifying about disparate treatment during a federal jury trial last November. The Vancouver Department is the largest law enforcement agency in Southwest Washington.
The pair claim that top brass conspired to file internal affairs complaints against them to hurt their careers. The tort claim names several top supervisors, including then-Police Chief Jeff Mori, who is retiring; and Deputy Chief Troy Price.
Three other women allegedly felt blowback for their testimonies, the claim alleges, including two commanders who both “resigned to avoid any further retaliation.” The women are not party to the claim.
Sara Baynard-Cooke, an assistant city attorney, said Vancouver officials would not comment on pending litigation but said they take the allegations seriously.
A tort claim is a legal notice notifying a public agency it could soon face a lawsuit. Several states, including Oregon and Washington, require claimants to file them several weeks prior to filing an official lawsuit.
Ballou already took the city to federal court on similar grounds last November. Her gender discrimination suit named the city of Vancouver and former police chief James McElvain.
The federal jury sided with Ballou on several of her claims, including that supervisors retaliated against her by passing her over for multiple promotions and promoted men instead. Yet they disagreed that her gender caused the internal complaints she faced around the same time. Both sides declared the verdict a victory.
The court awarded her $18,259.67 in emotional and economic damages and ordered the city of Vancouver to pay approximately $611,756 in legal fees. The jury awarded $8,230.33 to the city of Vancouver. Vancouver attorneys appealed the legal fee award in July.
“VPD is confident that it will prevail in any future lawsuit brought by Sgt. Ballou or Det. Skeeter,” Baynard-Cooke said in a statement.
During the 10-day trial, multiple women at the department came forward to echo allegations of bias against women. Commander Nanette Kistler testified that a male coworker made unsubstantiated claims that she changed a female officer’s test scores.
“They didn’t find anything,” Kistler said on the stand. “I sat there and felt humiliated.”
Kistler, who joined the department in 1992, said she told investigators and city administrators at one point about the mistreatment women experienced. For example, a female officer was punished for giving a false statement in 2017, but a male officer was unscathed by the same accusation, Kistler testified.
Another incident occurred after female officers notched the three highest scores in a 2020 sergeants’ exam, Kistler testified. Shortly after, an anonymous email went out alleging a “pandemic” of cronyism benefitting women.
“I was very transparent in my feelings about the culture of the Vancouver Police Department and the bias that existed in the (internal affairs) system that favored men and was harder on the women,” she said.
Commander Amy Foster — who is married to Kistler — also testified during the November trial and supported allegations of gender discrimination. Both women recently retired, Baynard-Cooke said.
Allegations of retaliation, lying in court
Attorneys did not describe in the new claim what kind of retaliation Foster and Kistler faced in recent months but did detail Ballou’s and Det. Skeeter’s experiences. Both women still work at the department.
Attorney Matthew Ellis, in the new tort claim, said Ballou and Skeeter are victims of a “campaign of retaliation” that was “hatched” by police supervisors to accuse the two women of lying in the November trial.
“The city should have left well enough alone regarding the trial,” Ellis wrote in the tort claim.
The chain of events dates back to one of Ballou’s Facebook posts in 2016.
According to Ellis, Ballou posted a selfie where she held up a “wife beater” style undershirt with the words “husband beater” printed on it. Skeeter commented, “I like that tank, where did you get it?”
In 2018, Cpl. Holly Musser complained that the post and comment violated the department’s social media policies. That triggered an internal affairs investigation for both women, though investigators ultimately found no evidence the post violated VPD policies.
Ahead of the November trial, Ballou and Skeeter had to publicly release some of their text messages about the investigation.
According to court filings, the text messages showed Ballou and Skeeter blamed Musser — not the city or McElvain, the defendants in the federal lawsuit. To city attorneys, the text messages undermined Ballou’s gender discrimination claims.
The exchange “reflects a belief — even if transitory — that (the investigation) was not initiated for gender or retaliatory reasons,” Baynard-Cooke wrote in a Nov. 6, 2023, court filing.
After the trial, police brass said the text messages showed Ballou and Skeeter lied during the November trial. They filed a new complaint. That investigation is currently open.
“The primary goal of the retaliatory investigation is transparent; to secure a finding of dishonesty against them in order to terminate their employment and/or discipline them,” Ellis wrote.
Ellis said police supervisors have tried to effectively end Ballou’s and Skeeter’s careers.
In the tort claim, he alleged that police supervisors sent their dishonesty allegations to the Washington Criminal Justice Training Commission in a bid to have the officers decertified.
Police supervisors also sent the allegations to the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office to place the two officers on the so-called Brady List, a roster of local officers who have problematic records. Ellis said local defense attorneys have already started receiving information about the allegations.
Baynard-Cooke argued that both actions had to be taken, mandated by a mix of state and federal laws, VPD policy and “rules” set by the Clark County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.
Ellis countered that four other Vancouver officers — including Deputy Chief Price — have faced dishonesty allegations, too, yet the city did not take those actions. A city spokesperson said the city did send those names to the prosecutor’s office.
This story has been updated to add additional details about the federal jury verdict, which sided in part with the city of Vancouver. A previous version of this article also misstated Deputy Police Chief Troy Price’s title.