BOISE, Idaho — This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press.
A Boise woman has filed a lawsuit against several Idaho State Police officers after she was arrested at a protest last year for allegedly shoving Idaho State Police Sgt. Michael Kish. The sergeant testified at trial that he didn’t remember her shoving him, and the judge acquitted her.
The woman, Avalon Hardy, alleged that she was subject to wrongful arrest and imprisonment, excessive force, malicious prosecution, fabrication and suppression of evidence and that her rights to free speech, assembly and association were violated.
Neither the Idaho State Police nor lawyers for Hardy immediately responded to interview requests.
“The evidence showed only ‘entirely incidental contact’ from ‘Ms. Hardy attempting to go around the officer,’ the trial judge concluded,” according to the lawsuit. “The judge went on to say that basic fairness demanded acquittal as well, ruling that the ‘ends of justice, I would think after watching that video, would also require this.’”
"That video" refers to a video of the incident shown at trial. The lawsuit described groups of tightly packed protesters divided over abortion rights at the June 28, 2022, rally in front of the Idaho Statehouse, a few days after Roe v. Wade was overturned. Law enforcement was interspersed among the crowd and Kish was in plain clothes with no visible badge, the lawsuit said.
“Police arrested only two people at the protest that day, both of them women of color protesting in support of abortion access,” the filings said. Hardy is Black.
The filing comes amid a reckoning over the last few years about the justice system and law enforcement.
Kish has spoken before about the perception of law enforcement. In 2016, he told Idaho News 6 that less than 1% of police officers are bad apples, but those officers give the greater law enforcement community a bad name.
“Really the people that I’ve seen, the people I’ve worked with aren't those bad apples and Idaho is a pretty solid law enforcement community,” Kish said at the time. “... Not every police officer out there thinks that they're above the law because they have a badge and a gun.”
Kish is not the only defendant in the suit.
Idaho State Police Sgt. Troy DeBie, who the lawsuit said signed a citation alleging that Hardy shoved Kish, is also named. Kyle Card and Steven McClain, two troopers who allegedly arrested Hardy, are named as well.
The lawsuit also sued unnamed officers that also participated in the situation.
Hardy said she had to drop her small business from full-time to part-time, lost clients and her children were targeted at school after the arrest. The lawsuit said she had to cut back on community and volunteer work to make time for the court process, and the arrest “severely chilled her free expression and assembly.”
A press release from Hardy's attorneys quoted her as saying: “Just because you're an officer of the law does not mean you get to lie and get away with it. It is time for them to be held accountable for their actions and suffer the consequences.”
The complaint is filed in Idaho’s federal district court.
Her requests include unspecified monetary damages, a declaration that the defendants violated her constitutional rights and attorney’s fees.
This article originally appeared in the Idaho Press, read more on IdahoPress.com.
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