The Sedona Police Department is still embroiled in controversy as former Deputy Chief Ryan Kwitkin, who was fired earlier this year, is suing the city’s authorities and his former supervisor. After voicing concerns about Police Chief Stephanie Foley’s behavior and dubious departmental methods, Kwitkin filed a lawsuit earlier this month, claiming that his dismissal was retaliatory. According to information received by FOX 10 Phoenix, Troy Foster, Kwitkin’s lawyer, claims that his client’s constitutional rights and state employment law were infringed.
Kwitkin was put on paid administrative leave after an internal review established that Foley had not created a hostile work environment. The City Manager, not Chief Foley, made this decision. Ten of the thirteen charges against Kwitkin, including those of aggressive behavior and harassment, were upheld as a result of the inquiry that followed. Kwitkin maintains that the complete truth of the circumstances surrounding his termination has not yet been revealed, regardless of the city’s viewpoint. According to Kwitkin, “there is some truth to it, but a lot of the allegations were spun to put me in a negative light,” she told FOX 10 Phoenix.
This conflict began when Kwitkin and another officer wrote to the City of Sedona, accusing Chief Foley of “belittling and disruptive behavior.” A third-party HR business found no grounds for action against the chief despite these accusations; Kwitkin’s legal team attributes this lack of evidence to possible suppression of other departmental witnesses’ testimony. “She was positioned in a place where anybody who had concerns about her, she could see where they were and where they were coming from, so I think that probably, people didn t come forward,”said Kwitkin’s attorney.
According to Red Rock News, Kwitkin had already sent the city a notice of claim after being fired, asking for $360,000 to avoid going to court—a sum that was not included in the calculation. If the city rejects the offer, the claim, which had a 60-day window for a response, lays the groundwork for the current litigation. In the meantime, Sedona municipal officials have refrained from commenting further on the matter due to the increasing pressure of the inquiry.
Kwitkin has also criticized specific departmental procedures, raising issues with the deployment of volunteer officers to transport arrestees and the legality of warning shots in specific situations. These criticisms support Kwitkin’s claim that he was working to modernize antiquated police procedures that did not conform to modern norms. In his claim, he is requesting a jury trial, back pay, reinstatement, and both compensatory and punitive damages. He said, “If doing the right thing was easy, everybody would do it,” with a determination that matches the seriousness of the impending court dispute.
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