Ryan Davis

In a new lawsuit, a former Powell police officer is alleging that city officials fired him “because he wanted to clean up what was going on at the department.”

Ryan Davis joined the Powell Police Department in March 2021 and was terminated in January 2022.

His firing came after a serious case of COVID-19 left him unable to work for several months, and Davis alleges city leaders “made it clear” they were terminating him for “being sick and costing too much money.” That, he says, violated his rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act, arguing “long COVID” qualified as a disability during the pandemic. But in a complaint filed in Wyoming’s U.S. District Court last week, Davis also contends his health problems were just a pretext for canning him.

“He was fired because the department administration wanted to do things their way without any concern to the right or wrong of ‘their way,’” says a portion of the 35-page complaint, submitted by attorney Daniel Wilkerson of Gillette.

In prior correspondence with the city, Davis demanded $1.1 million, but he indicated the amount would “most likely change” after a suit was filed.

Last week’s complaint lists 13 different claims — including wrongful termination, retaliation, violations of his constitutional rights to free speech and due process, conspiracy to interfere with civil rights, gross negligence, breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, civil conspiracy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Powell Police Chief Roy Eckerdt, Lt. Matt McCaslin, City Administrator Zack Thorington and City Clerk/Human Resources Manager Tiffany Brando are each named as defendants, with the complaint alleging they “conspired” to fire Davis.

“Under advice from counsel we are not able to comment on pending litigation,” Eckerdt told the Tribune Friday, but he offered that, “the facts of this case will come in due time.”

Thorington also deferred to legal counsel.

‘dream job’ goes south

A decorated veteran of the U.S. Army National Guard, Davis came to Powell from northern California, where he’d spent more than six years as a sheriff’s deputy. At the time he was hired, the officer and his family were excited to become a part of the Powell community. And up until he got sick, “I thought things were going great,” Davis told the Tribune last year.

However, the complaint indicates he also soured on aspects of the Powell Police Department. The document includes roughly eight pages of text written by Davis, in which he recounts clashes with various leaders at the department.

For example, in his first month on duty, Davis reportedly got into an argument with a sergeant over a state statute that allows officers to break down a door or window if they have probable cause to arrest someone inside. As Davis was discussing the law, he says the sergeant “screamed ‘you will not do that!’”

“I asked him to please show me the policy that forbade it, as the law clearly allows it, and he continued to yell and stomp around the room shouting that I can’t do it — and the only reason he gave was ‘Because I said so!’” Davis writes.

He also complains about the sergeant entering unlocked businesses and residences during nighttime security checks.

“[The sergeant’s] approach was that the door being unlocked gave him, a government officer, sufficient suspicion that there might be a crime occurring inside. I openly challenged this as a blatant Fourth Amendment violation,” Davis said.

According to Davis, the two clashed over the issue multiple times and Eckerdt and McCaslin “did nothing to curb the wrongful activity and wrongful policing.”

He also complains about the communications supervisor changing information in the computer assisted dispatch system (CAD) “to suit her reporting purposes” and recounts arguing with her after he refused to tow a car that was parked in the way of city electrical workers.

Although city policy reserves the right to tow vehicles if they impede city business, Davis said the car was legally parked and the workers could have used a different gate to access the area.

“I refused to comply as I stated I would not knowingly tow a vehicle under the color of authority without probable cause,” he wrote in the complaint.

Davis also recalls clashing with McCaslin and another sergeant over how to go about seizing a stolen firearm from a Powell pawn shop and, among other concerns, says he received training that didn’t follow policing standards and that was provided by undertrained and inexperienced officers.

“Officer Davis was obviously fired because he was a pain to the police department administration,” the complaint alleges.

Catching COVID

Davis contracted COVID-19 from an unknown source in late September 2021, he previously told the Tribune, and it developed into a serious illness. He spent three days in the hospital and an extended period of time on oxygen.

In early December 2021, he was diagnosed with long COVID, pneumonia and tachycardia, which involves an irregularly high heart rate. Davis says his cardiologist advised against returning to work, directing him to wait until a follow-up evaluation that March. According to his complaint, Davis “was not able to perform the normal job functions of a patrolling police officer.”

Then on Jan. 7, 2022 — while Davis was still on Workers’ Compensation and Family Medical Leave — he was summoned to a meeting with Eckerdt, Thorington and Brando and fired, the complaint says. According to Davis, the three officials said his illness “was a hardship to the department” and there were no other positions available.

“Because I was taking too long to get healthy, it was all taken away from me by a department at a city that promised me … that, ‘We take care of our cops, we take care of our employees here, we’re a family,’” Davis told the Tribune in a June 2022 interview. “The second I became an inconvenience, they discarded me.”

Davis later filed a complaint against the city with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which concluded in July that “there is reasonable cause to believe that [the City of Powell] failed to provide [Davis] with additional leave as a reasonable accommodation and terminated him based on his disability, in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

On Nov. 14, the Department of Justice notified Davis that it would not be filing a suit against the city, but gave the former officer 90 days to file his own suit. He did so on Dec. 5.

Because of his firing in Powell, Davis “has been informed that he is essentially not hirable” as an officer in California, the complaint says. As result of the city’s “wrongful actions,” the suit alleges Davis “has gone from being viewed as a decorated and distinguished military man and law enforcement officer to being viewed as a pariah the government will not hire.”

The complaint in federal court doesn’t list a specific total of damages Davis is seeking, but a notice of claim he gave to the city in October ticked off a long list of alleged losses — including wages, insurance coverage and having “to give up his dream of living in small-police-friendly-town-Wyoming.” At the time of his firing Davis and his family had just purchased a home in Powell — as had his parents — but they’ve since sold their properties and moved back to California.

After being served with the complaint, the city officials will have 20 days to file a formal answer in court. The city is being represented by an attorney with its insurer, the Local Government Liability Pool, while the police department is represented by the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office. The case has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl of Casper.

Davis filed his suit a day after Eckerdt’s upcoming retirement was publicly announced, but the outgoing chief said Friday that the litigation “was not a factor” in his decision to retire.