Former Deputy Amy Stringer, who is now a patrol officer with the Fort Dodge Police Department, has filed an official complaint with the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, naming the Webster County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Luke Fleener, Chief Deputy Derek Christie and Deputy Tom Steck as respondents of the complaint. On Tuesday, The Messenger obtained a copy of the signed complaint.

In the complaint, Stringer alleged that last fall, after she reported that Steck had been involved with sexual harassment within the local law enforcement agencies and other illegal activities, the sheriff and chief deputy began to target her in retaliation for reporting Steck.

Stringer’s civil rights complaint asserts that the discrimination she received, including retaliation, harassment and being forced to resign, was based on her sex as a female and because she reported discrimination to someone within the sheriff’s office.

On Tuesday, The Messenger reached out to Fleener for comment and he referred the matter to Webster County Attorney Darren Driscoll.

Luke Fleener

“This is the first I’ve heard of it and I’m not aware of anything that was an issue until now,” said Fleener.

In a phone call, Driscoll declined to comment on the specifics of the complaint.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate to comment on a filing that I haven’t seen yet and that the county has not had a chance to review, and also we wouldn’t generally comment on any pending matters against the county,” he said.

The Messenger also reached out via email to Robert Rehkemper, of West Des Moines, the attorney of record for Steck. No response was received by press time on Tuesday evening.

Stringer’s complaint to the Division of Criminal Investigation alleges that Steck was involved in criminal activity, namely “covering up for an informant by providing him with a fake alibi” and “beating a person in custody without cause.”

Derek Christie

Stringer said she reported Steck’s alleged actions to FDPD Chief Dennis Quinn, who was the captain in charge of the investigations division at the time.

“I had no other place to turn because Sheriff Fleener would not have done anything to stop Steck since they are such close friends,” Stringer wrote.

After Stringer reported to Quinn, she said, Quinn got Driscoll and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation involved. In her complaint to the Civil Rights Commission, Stringer said she and three female colleagues filed a complaint directly to the DCI and the DCI executed an unannounced search of the sheriff’s office as well as Steck’s personal residence. Following the searches, she said, Steck was “immediately placed on administrative leave” by the county’s human resources department.

According to previous reporting by The Messenger, Oct. 19, 2022, was the date that the FDPD notified Driscoll of the allegations against Steck and that same day, Driscoll’s office contacted the DCI to start an investigation.

Due to the investigation, the Webster County Attorney’s Office had to file a mandatory Brady/Giglio Disclosure on 14 pending cases in Webster County, involving nine defendants. According to the disclosure, which court records show were filed on Nov. 14, 2022, a search warrant was executed on Steck the previous Wednesday, which was Nov. 9.

Tom Steck

Prior to Stringer’s resignation from the sheriff’s office on April 9, 2023, she spent 10 years working as a deputy with the department, the last four of which she worked as a detective. Stringer is a Fort Dodge native, but started her law enforcement career with the Dodge City Police Department in Dodge City, Kansas, where she served as a patrol officer, a gang officer and a member of the problem-oriented policing unit.

During Stringer’s time as a detective with the WCSO, she often worked alongside Steck who, until May 2021, was a detective with the FDPD. In May 2021, Steck transitioned over to the sheriff’s office to work as a detective.

In the civil rights complaint, Stringer wrote that throughout her time working with Steck, she witnessed his “inappropriate and illegal behavior.” She gave specific examples, including an allegation that Steck would make Stringer drive by a female colleague’s house “because Steck wanted to stalk her.”

“I tried to avoid doing it as much as I could, but sometimes I went along with it because I knew about his temper,” Stringer wrote. “He said he was in love with her, even though he was married and [she] was dating someone else.”

Stringer wrote that this made her very uncomfortable, but because she believed Steck angered easily and would allegedly often get angry and yell and throw or slam things, she went along with it.

“I feared him,” Stringer wrote.

She wrote that on Oct. 12, 2022, she stopped working with Steck as much and actively tried to avoid him as much as possible.

“Working with him was taking a toll on my mental and physical health,” Stringer wrote. “…I would sometimes leave work to avoid being around him when he was upset.”

Stringer then decided to go to Quinn about her concerns because she felt that Fleener wouldn’t do anything because of his friendship with Steck.

“I could no longer endure working with Steck and knew I was going to continue suffering the longer I worked with him,” Stringer wrote.

The alleged retaliation from Fleener and Christie started after the DCI got involved, Stringer wrote.

“The unannounced searches angered Fleener, who is best friends with Steck,” she wrote.

Following the DCI search on Steck and Steck’s placement on leave, Fleener allegedly sent a department-wide email encouraging staff to “keep Tom in [their] thoughts and prayers.”

“Steck created an unsafe and hostile work environment, but Sheriff Fleener supported him,” Stringer wrote.

Stringer wrote that Driscoll informed Fleener of the allegations against Steck that had been reported to the DCI and noted that the complaints came from four women. She said that because very few women work in the sheriff’s office, it was “not very difficult” to figure out who complained.

“Sheriff Fleener made it known that Steck is ‘out to get the people responsible for this investigation,'” Stringer wrote. “After Fleener determined who the complainants were, I was a target.”

The retaliation against Stringer continued and began to interfere with her job as an investigator, she says. She claims she was told not to assist the FDPD in investigations, even when the FDPD asked for her help specifically because of a rapport she already had with a suspect. She helped anyway, at the request of the FDPD and the county attorney’s office, and because of that, she wrote, she received a lower score on her yearly evaluation because she should have “pushed it to another department” and “not gotten involved.”

A WCSO staff holiday party was held Jan. 7 and when Stringer learned that Steck was at the party and “clearly angry,” and there was alcohol present, she decided to not attend because she didn’t feel safe. The following Monday, she said, she was informed by Christie that it was time for her annual evaluation.

Stringer had been with the WCSO since April 2013 and noted that until this year, she had only received “exceed expectations” on her employee evaluations. This year, she said, she received marks of “does not meet expectations,” yet no improvement plan was given. She said during this evaluation, she was told by Fleener that she “showed no leadership qualities whatsoever.”

“This was a stark contrast from the previous feedback that I received,” Stringer wrote.

She said that in July 2021, Fleener told her he was considering her for a promotion to a sergeant position, but was later told that the budget approvals were needed before the position was created and the promotion did not happen in 2021. She said Fleener again shared his intention to promote her in 2022.

“It was very jarring to hear in my evaluation that I showed no leadership although previous discussions with Sheriff Fleener showed that he considered me to be a great leader,” she wrote.

At the end of Stringer’s 2023 evaluation meeting, she wrote, Fleener allegedly told her, “Tom will be coming back to work, you can count on that.”

The alleged retaliation continued with Christie accusing her of not doing her job, Stringer wrote. In February, he sent her an email that the evidence lockers were full and needed to be cleaned out right away so new evidence could be stored. Stringer wrote that while she managed the keys to the evidence lockers, it was the officers using them who are responsible for emptying them and cleaning them, not her.

On March 7, Stringer said she went to Ted Vaughn, the human resources director for the county departments, to file an official complaint about Steck’s alleged harassment of her and others, and of the retaliation she was facing from leadership within the WCSO.

“Ted wanted to help, but he also didn’t want to interfere with the DCI investigation,” Stringer wrote. “He also told me it is Sheriff Fleener’s decision and his alone whether to fire or bring back Steck, so it would be hard to protect me from them.”

It was shortly after that meeting when Stringer decided she’d had enough and needed to leave the sheriff’s office.

“As a result of the retaliation I faced, being scrutinized for everything I did, being singled out repeatedly and being passed up on positions I was told I would previously get, I knew I had to resign,” she wrote. “Following my yearly evaluation, I knew I wouldn’t be able to continue to grow in my career. I was told I was lazy and selfish, even though I had never been warned or talked to about these apparent issues prior to my complaint against Steck. I also know Sheriff Fleener wants to bring Steck back and I could not work at a place where I would be in constant fear. Thus, because of the way the Webster County Sheriff’s Office treated me, I was forced to quit my job.”

Once a complaint is made to the Iowa Civil Rights Commission, the agency first reviews to determine if it has jurisdiction over the complaint, according to the commission’s website. Then the complainant and respondents are sent tailored, specific questionnaires regarding the complaint and any relevant background that they must return within 30 days. The information will be reviewed to determine if the commission will call for a further investigation.

Once the complaint has been on file for 60 days, the complainant has the option of removing their complaint from the Civil Rights Commission and its investigatory process in order to commence a lawsuit in state District Court.

Stringer’s attorney, Roxanne Conlin, of Des Moines, indicated to The Messenger on Tuesday that they intend to file the suit in District Court.

According to the commission’s website, “The Iowa Civil Rights Commission is a neutral, fact-finding law enforcement agency that enforces the ‘Iowa Civil Rights Act of 1965,’ Iowa’s anti-discrimination law.”

The commission processes an average of 1,300 complaints each year.

Steck remains on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the DCI investigation. Earlier this month, the Webster County Board of Supervisors approved the annual “step” increase in Steck’s salary despite his status on leave. The board determined that due to language of the existing collective bargaining agreement the county has with the sheriff’s deputies union, failing to provide that step increase would violate the collective bargaining agreement.

The board unanimously approved the step increase from $32.71 to $33.83 per hour, effective May 12.

Newsletter

Today's breaking news and more in your inbox

I'm interested in (please check all that apply)

• Daily Newsletter
• Breaking News
• Obituaries

Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *

• Yes
• No