Sanders County Ledger - Your Best Source For Sanders County News

by Ed Moreth

The Plains Police Commission last

week upheld a decision by Mayor Chris

Allen to terminate a police officer for

insubordination, not following the chain

of command on a continued basis and

falsifying official documents, to name

only a portion of the reasons for his

dismissal.

Allen fired Chris Reyna from the

Plains Police Department on May 31,

listing several reasons for the termination.

The 37-year-old Reyna, who had

been with the department since January

2016, hired an attorney to appeal the

termination. The Plains Police Commission,

composed of Ron Robinson,

Dennis Evans and Tracy Scott, held

a hearing at City Hall last Monday to

decide whether or not the mayor's action

to fire Reyna was proper.

"The police commission is very

limited in its powers and duties. It is not

authorized to run a police department or

even suggest policies. What we are here

to do is to find the truth," said Robinson,

the commission chairman.

More than two dozen people

crowded into the meeting room of City

Hall, along with Loren Fitzpatrick,

the town's attorney, and Jordan Kilby,

Reyna's attorney. Robinson stated at the

start of the hearing that the purpose of

the commission was to make certain that

there exists an independent and impartial

forum where the appeal would be fairly

and fully heard and where the fair decision

will be reached.

Only two witnesses - Allen and

Chief of Police Brian Josephson - were

called during the near four-hour hearing.

Reyna never took the stand. "I want

to point out one thing very specifically.

It should say something that he's not

testifying today. Officer Reyna is not

testifying today to clear his name," said

Fitzpatrick in his closing statement.

"What's important here is that Mr. Reyna

did not dispute these contentions on the

record," he added.

Once the hearing was over late that

afternoon, the three commissioners spent

less than 30 minutes to decide that "the decision of Mayor Chris

Allen to terminate Officer

Chris Reyna is sustained,"

according to the five-page

document signed by the

three commissioners. The

document summarized

the findings of fact and

the conclusions of law

brought out in the hearing.

Robinson said the evidence

against Reyna was overwhelming.

Reyna's attorney

seemed to be fighting

an uphill battle during

the hearing as Fitzpatrick

revealed numerous

instances, some more

serious than others, of illegal

or unethical activities

on Reyna's part, which

mostly stemmed from the

time Josephson took over

as chief in June 2022, although

Josephson testified

that he didn't believe there

was friction between the

two when he took over. He

said the only friction was

what he'd asked Reyna to

do and what Reyna wanted

to do as an officer, mainly

because the previous chief

managed the officers in a

different way.

"Officer Reyna was

terminated for good cause.

Although Officer Reyna alleges

he was terminated for

retaliation, the commission

believes Officer Reyna was

instead terminated for good

cause," the commissioners'

report stated.

Reyna had made allegations

against Josephson

and the town, saying

there was a hostile work

environment and he was

harassed and discriminated

against, but he couldn't

come up with any evidence

to back his accusations, the

mayor said, adding that in

a May 11 letter, the mayor

specifically asked Reyna if

he could substantiate any

of the allegations that the

town had engaged in illegal

activities or that he had

been harassed.

Allen said that there

were enough allegations

against the chief and the

department that eventually

the town brought in

Sanders County Detective

Martin Spring to investigate

Reyna's complaints,

but Spring could find no

credible evidence. "Instead

of finding any substance to

the allegations, all we got

was a lot of suppositions,

lies, and things that are

unbecoming of an officer,"

said Allen. "So basically

speaking, we have an officer

that is lying to try to

get things done the way

he wants them done," he

added.

Reyna had been dismissed

for failing to follow

the orders of his supervisor,

failure to perform assigned

work in an efficient and

effective manner, speaking

critically or in a derogatory

manner about supervisors,

making false statements

about employment, and

falsifying 75 official police

records. Another reason for

his termination was when

he went on duty, without

permission, to help then

Officer Jared Hutchings

deliver his resignation to

the mayor at City Hall. He

charged the town for that

time and then, while on

actual duty later that evening,

instead of doing his

patrol job, took copies of

the resignation letters to the

private residences of council

members, according to

commission documents.

"We have an officer

handing out letters from

another officer, who's

leaving, to people at their

private residences. He's

supposed to be enforcing

the law, he's supposed to

be driving around, but he's

become the politician of

the town and that's not part

of his job," said Fitzpatrick.

Kilby brought up in the

hearing that one of the reasons

Reyna was terminated

was an incident involving

the improper cuffing of a

prisoner. The testimony by

Josephson revealed that

while Reyna was transporting

a female prisoner

to Thompson Falls, she

slipped out of her cuffs,

slid over behind Reyna,

pulled her pants down and

urinated on the floor, then

moved back over to the

other side and pulled cigarettes

and a lighter from her

pocket and lit the cigarette.

Josephson said Reyna had

been reprimanded for the

incident, but it was not one

of the reasons for termination.

Allen stated that the

incident demonstrated that

safety was not a priority

for Reyna. "It showed me

situations like that, that we

have an officer that is not

mindful of safety or even

doing what an officer is expected

to do." He said there

were other situations that

demonstrated that Reyna

was "unwilling to change

the way he operated."

Reyna's attorney

questioned whether or not

her client had been given

sufficient notification of his

dismissal and that the reasons

for his dismissal were

unclear. Fitzpatrick, however,

said that Reyna had

been given several notices,

verbally and in writing, and

he had been told why he

was fired. He provided letters

dating back to December

of last year, along with

emails verifying Reyna's

problems with chain of

command, falsifying

records, and his continued

reluctance to turn in written

reports and his PBTs

(portable breathalyzer

tests). Robinson said that

his dismissal wasn't "out

of the blue" and that he had

received multiple warnings

over the past year. In the

commissioners' report, it

stated that Josephson sent

Reyna multiple emails

cautioning him that his

"continued refusal to abide

by written directives could

be grounds for insubordination."

Kilby argued that the

mayor's written monologue

was too general to

apprise Reyna of any basis

of termination, but the

members of the commission

said her argument

was "unconvincing."

Fitzpatrick reiterated that

he had been warned about

problems for over a year.

He said that the May 31

termination meeting was

not the first time he had

been put on notice for his

actions. He pointed out that

the May 26 letter from the

chief referred to the record

falsification, along with his

failure to abide by written

directives, including a

directive to patrol within

the town limits, a directive

to seek approval for extra

shift time, and a directive

to turn in written reports

and his PBTs in a timely

manner. It also noted

Reyna's attempt to mislead

an official investigation

relating to a charge that the

town and the department

engaged in unethical, immoral

and illegal matters.

In Kilby's closing

argument, she stated that

the reason they were there

was to determine whether

or not Reyna was rightfully

terminated and, citing the

town's personnel manual,

she pointed out that his

dismissal required approval

of not just the mayor, but

also by the town council,

which did not happen. She

added that she believes

Reyna should be reinstated

because due process was

not followed.

However, it was determined

that the general

personnel manual does not

include the police department,

said Allen. The

police department falls

under its own guidelines

and states that the mayor

has charge and supervision

of the Plains Police Department

and shall appoint the

members and officers of

the police department. In

addition, the mayor "shall

have the power to suspend

or remove any member or

officer of the force," the

manual states.

Reyna said that the

police commission was not

neutral, based on the several

Ed Moreth

OVERRULED – Ron Robinson, chairman of the Plains Police Commission, disputes an assertion by Jordan Kilby, the attorney for Chris Reyna, that Mayor Chris Allen did not follow proper channels in the former officer's termination.

commission ruling for

the prosecution during the

hearing. "At one point my

attorney stopped objecting

because they were always

going to rule in favor of

the current administration,"

said Reyna, who plans

to appeal the decision in

district court.