Deputy police chiefs agree to dismiss Wichita City Council member from federal lawsuit

Three Wichita deputy police chiefs have agreed to dismiss City Council member and mayoral candidate Bryan Frye from a $2.4 million federal lawsuit against the city and several officials, court records show.

Deputy Chief Jose Salcido and former deputy chiefs Wanda Parker-Givens and Chester Pinkston had accused Frye of defamation and retaliation after he accused them of extortion during a City Council meeting in September 2022. After filing the lawsuit, Salcido and Pinkston also filed ethics complaints against Frye with the Wichita Ethics Advisory Board. The ethics panel cleared Frye of any wrongdoing in April.

“From the beginning, I felt that the case against me lacked merit,” Frye said. “So it’s good to see that both the lawsuit and the city ethics complaint against me have both been dismissed.”

The deputy chiefs had alleged Frye’s comments were part of a widespread conspiracy by eight city officials — including the city manager, human resources director, two police captains and leaders of the Fraternal Order of Police — to discredit the deputy chiefs and drive them out of the department in retaliation for their attempts to address systemic racism and sexism within WPD and FOP’s interference in investigations of police shootings.

Frye responded to the lawsuit in April, saying his comments were “hyperbolic” and protected by legislative immunity, a legal principle meant to shield legislators — including council members — from being sued for comments made while discussing legislative matters. He also said his comments were protected by the First Amendment and that the lawsuit should be dismissed under Kansas’ anti-SLAPP statute because it was meant to “chill his right to free speech.”

Frye’s defense also said the deputy chiefs failed to make any factual allegations linking him to a conspiracy to discredit or remove the deputy chiefs, two of which said in a recent filing that they left the department because of the “hostile work environment” at the city of Wichita.

James Thompson, the deputy chiefs’ lawyer, said his clients decided to dismiss Frye from the lawsuit because of the risk that comes with an anti-SLAPP motion, which could have resulted in the deputy chiefs having to pay for Frye’s legal expenses.

The Kansas anti-SLAPP statute — the Public Speech Protection Act — provides defendants a way to dismiss meritless lawsuits directed against them for exercising their First Amendment rights.

“Anti-SLAPP statutes get abused, and I think in this case that’s exactly what happened,” Thompson said. “It was abused to prevent my clients from moving forward with a claim.”

“The potential risk because of that statute is not worth the reward when the majority of this goes against Layton and Bezruki, et cetera,” Thompson said, alluding to City Manager Robert Layton and former city Human Resources Director Chris Bezruki.

“If Frye had done what he was supposed to and not commented and followed the rules that he agreed to as a City Council member, he would have never been included in the lawsuit in the first place.”

Parker-Givens retired in early 2022. Pinkston retired in February and accepted a job as chief of police in Liberal, Kansas. Salcido remains the deputy chief of investigations for Wichita.

Frye’s Sept. 20 comments were directed at Pinkston and Salcido.

“The definition of extortion: the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats,” Frye said in a brief speech at a city council meeting. “It’s mindblowing that two current deputy chiefs of the Wichita Police Department have resorted to this tactic. Deputy chiefs Salcido and Pinkston should resign immediately.”

Frye said he stands by his comments.

“I absolutely believe in what I said, and I wouldn’t change a thing,” he said in an interview with The Eagle.

Salcido and Pinkston had sent the city a notice that they planned to sue the city of Wichita and several city officials. They accused the city manager, human resources director and interim police chief of colluding with the Fraternal Order of Police to shield officers from discipline.

The deputy chiefs claim the city used multiple avenues to discredit them in the eyes of the public:

▪ A focus group survey reported by The Wichita Eagle in January 2022 that showed morale in parts of the Wichita Police Department was at an all-time low. It claimed WPD executive staff — former Chief Gordon Ramsay, Parker-Givens, Salcido and Pinkston — were “adept at avoiding scrutiny by blaming others” and more concerned with the image of the department than addressing issues. Their lawsuit claims former WPD captains Wendell Nicholson and Kevin Kochenderfer administered the survey to a select group to embarrass executive staff and that the survey results were compromised. A larger survey in 2022 largely reinforced the focus group’s findings.

▪ A City Manager’s Office committee report that urged a crackdown on Wichita police misconduct and a purge of racist officers from the department. It blamed Ramsay, Salcido and Pinkston for mishandling an internal investigation and discipline of SWAT team members who sent racist, sexist and homophobic text messages first reported by The Eagle last year. They also failed to disclose the officers’ misconduct to federal and state prosecutors, the report said.

▪ City Manager Layton told The Eagle that he was left in the dark by Ramsay about the department’s handling of the text message scandal. Ramsay said he did tell Layton. Records requested by The Eagle under the Kansas Open Records Act showed no such communications were made in writing.

Frye is the only defendant who has been dismissed from the lawsuit. The city of Wichita, Layton, Bezruki, former interim Chief Troy Livingston, Kochenderfer, Nicholson, FOP president and Wichita detective Dave Inkelaar, and FOP senior chief lodge steward Officer Paul Zamorano have all filed motions to dismiss.