BOISE, Idaho — He recorded two Boise Police officers in a downtown parking garage on his phone and wound up under arrest. Ty Werenka's charges were later dropped, but a year later, he is suing those officers and the City of Boise in U.S. District Court.
In his lawsuit filed Monday, Werenka and his attorney claim the officers unlawfully arrested him and violated his civil rights.
Werenka was not only known to Boise PD because of his social justice work with Boise Mutual Aid, but BPD also ticketed him at a protest and Idaho State Police arrested him during a protest at the capitol. Those two incidents involving Werenka were eventually dismissed.
He doesn't call himself an activist; he says he's a citizen who is concerned about protecting marginalized people in Boise and holding police accountable.
KTVB reached out to BPD for reaction to this lawsuit. However, they said they can't comment on pending lawsuits.
BPD also noted that Cpl. Carter retired from the department in March.
The incident between Werenka and Boise PD officers
Around 3 a.m. on June 11, 2022, a Boise Police officer's body camera video shows two officers arresting Werenka in a parking garage on Capitol and Main. They claimed he obstructed Cpl. "Denny" Carter from doing his job.
Werenka was charged with resisting and obstructing and was booked into jail.
"What was I obstructing?" Werenka is heard asking Carter.
"My investigation," Carter responds.
"How was I obstructing your investigation?"
"Then you try to block my view --"
"Block your view from what? My face?"
"-- with your camera. I'm trying to have a conversation with you."
Carter and another officer, Avery Westendorf, were there to respond to a car accident at the pay station.
Werenka was leaving work and driving out of the garage at the time. A parking garage employee asked him to move along. He left and parked his car on the street, walked back in and got out his phone.
"That's something I do all the time. Anytime I see something strange with police, I'll stop and take the time if I have it to just record it and just see what's happening, and if people need the footage, I'll give it to them. If not, at least there's a third-party account of what's happening," Werenka told KTVB.
The employee again told him to leave and that it's private property. In the officers' body camera video, you can see Werenka walking away.
But, as officer Wstendorf's body camera and Werenka's cell phone video show, the situation escalated. Westendorf's body camera began recording audio as Cpl. Carter approached Werenka near the exit:
"Why are you interfering with this investigation?" Carter asks Werenka.
"I'm not interfering," Werenka responds.
"This gentleman has already asked you to leave once. You came back around."
"He asked me to leave the garage which I left."
"No you're here in the garage. You can't have left the garage."
"He asked me to [keep] driving and I kept driving. He didn't say don't come back."
"Do you want this gentleman to leave?" Carter asks the parking garage employee.
"Yes, please," the employee responds.
"I'm trying to leave. What do you think I'm doing? You just stopped --" Werenka tells Cpl. Carter.
"Let me make this clear. I want to make it super clear --" Carter says.
"So tell me what I was interfering with."
At this point, Werenka switches his phone from his left to his right hand and holds it up to record Carter's face. Carter slaps the phone out of his hand and yells, "get that out of my face!"
Carter grabs him by the neck as he bends down to get his phone, then pushes him up against the wall and tells him he's under arrest. Werenka is heard saying, "I'm not resisting, I'm not resisting."
"When I reached down to grab [my phone], he shoved me in the neck and grabbed my arm and pushed me up against the wall, and started putting cuffs on me and told me I was under arrest for obstruction," Werenka said.
Federal lawsuit filed, alleging unlawful arrest
This is what led Werenka and his attorney Johnathan Baldauf to file a lawsuit in federal court against the City of Boise and the two officers, claiming they unlawfully arrested Werenka and violated his civil rights.
Their complaint says officers arrested and searched Werenka without probable cause, used excessive and unreasonable force during the arrest and caused him serious physical injuries.
"People a lot of times say, 'this isn't Boise, this doesn't happen here' or whatever. It's like, well, I think this case is a prime example of one of many that this sort of stuff does happen here,” Werenka said.
His suit also claims BPD and the city attorney's office have a pattern of acting indifferently to the constitutional rights of Boiseans and people visiting.
"I'm really interested in seeing some actual accountability. It seems like that's something that's lacking within the Boise Police Department and Boise, generally, with any of our public officials," Werenka told KTVB. "It seems like the city holds a great deal of liability in the situation because they are the ones who oversee the entire operation. At any point in time, they could have stepped in and said, 'no, don't do that,' but it had to take me hiring an attorney and going through all the steps in order to try to actually clear my name."
"I have nightmares about the situation and about other police. And I think, overall, the city also suffered too and everybody else, because how is anybody supposed to have faith in police when they see something like this? It's kind of an abject failure I think of the system at hand," Werenka added.
When KTVB asked whether he showed up, began recording and got close to the officer to agitate and and escalate the situation, Werenka responded:
"I think that's a great question, and then if you look at the footage, you'll see that's not what happened at all. He actually approached me," Werenka said. "I wasn't saying anything to him at the time, I was just filming the situation as I was walking away."
In this federal lawsuit, Werenka is asking for $1 million. He also wants the case to go before a jury.
Werenka's obstruction charges stemming from this incident were dismissed in October. The city said although there was probable cause to bring the case, there has been a "change in the complexion of the state's case and it can no longer prove the matter beyond a reasonable doubt."
Accountability within the city
To show there's accountability in the department, Werenka says the city should at the very least hire a permanent director for its Office of Police Accountability.
That office reviews police conduct and investigations and takes citizen complaints. There is an interim director currently, but the official role has sat vacant for six months after the former director was fired.
The City of Boise named three finalists for the director position in April. Boise spokeswoman Maria Weeg told our news partners at the Idaho Press that Boise offered the job to the interim police auditor from Eugene, Oregon, but she declined the job offer.
Weeg told KTVB on Friday afternoon that they are currently working with their city recruiting team in HR to identify and reach out to potential candidates.
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