Two months after Boise’s police oversight director was fired, office investigators have resigned

Investigators with Boise’s police oversight office have resigned, leaving the agency staffed only with an office administrator and its interim director, after its former director, Jesus Jara, was fired last year.

John Meyer and Diane Loos, two contract investigators with the Office of Police Accountability, resigned on Feb. 3, a spokesperson for Mayor Lauren McLean, Maria Weeg, told the Idaho Statesman by email.

Weeg declined to comment on why the investigators had left, saying that it is a personnel matter.

Boise’s police oversight office was reconfigured in 2021, and McLean hired Jara that summer to lead the office, which reviews critical incidents and civilian complaints about Boise policing.

Both investigators were hired on Nov. 8, 2021, by Jara, who sued the city after he was fired in December. In a December news release, McLean said she had learned that Jara was watching police body cameras without authorization, which she said was “untenable.”

“This is a serious violation of the privacy of our residents and a worrisome erosion of the trust we intended to build with the OPA model of oversight,” she said in the release.

Jara’s lawsuit alleges he received conflicting guidance from the city about his role and was retaliated against for investigating officer complaints about the police department’s leadership and internal oversight. In court filings, lawyers for the city have denied Jara’s claims, arguing that any potential damages to Jara were caused by his “negligence, fault, or legal responsibility.”

In January, McLean picked Nicole Schafer, a city prosecutor, to serve as interim director of the oversight office until the mayor finds a permanent replacement.

In her email, Weeg told the Statesman there are no oversight investigations “waiting to be assigned to an investigator.”

She said that intakes and day-to-day operations are performed by the office administrator, Julieann Hagler.

“In the event of an incoming investigation, Nicole will work with outside counsel. New investigators will be identified and onboarded by the permanent director when that person is selected and begins work,” Weeg said.

In the past, the accountability office has worked with Nampa law firm White, Petersen, Gigray and Nichols.

Attempts to reach the two investigators were unsuccessful.

According to an online bio, Meyer formerly worked for California law enforcement — including time spent as a police chief in Irvine — before retiring in 2019 and moving to Idaho. Loos, according to her bio, worked in law enforcement in Georgia before coming to Boise.

The city has removed an “About the OPA Team” tab from its website.