Citizen Alleges that Boise Police Tried to Serve Papers Improperly, Left Off Contacts from Court Document

By Greg Pruett • December 28, 2024

Note: Any allegations of wrongdoing by Boise Police officers in an online video are not allegations by the Idaho Dispatch. All parties in this story are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

An online video obtained by the Idaho Dispatch (video at end of story) shows Boise Police Officer Damon Baughman instructing another BPD officer, Tyrell Clark, to leave a temporary civil protection order on a door handle and say that he saw the individual they were trying to serve through the door.

In the edited video, BPD officers attempted to serve the court papers to the home of a Boise citizen named Shaun Buck on Sunday, May 5th, 2024. When Clark begins knocking on the door, Baughman says that if he sees Buck through the doorway, say “serving” and leave the paperwork on the door handle of the front door.

Baughman tells Clark, “That’s good,” presumably telling him that that will be sufficient to serve the papers. After a few moments, Clark puts the paperwork on the door handle, and both officers walk away.

As the officers walk away, Baughman tells Clark to write on the paperwork that Buck came to the door and that Buck refused to talk to him.

Buck tells Idaho Dispatch he was not home when the officers came to the door and that his son was home with some of his other kids. In an unedited bodycam footage obtained by Idaho Dispatch, someone is seen near the front door for a few seconds when Clark was outside, which Buck says was one of his sons. The individual inside says something to Clark, but the audio is not clear, the person cannot be identified easily, and the individual walks away without ever opening the door.

Buck provided Idaho Dispatch with a receipt (which he says he also texted to Clark) showing a one-way plane ticket he purchased to go to New York on May 2nd, one day before the court issued the orders. Buck tells Idaho Dispatch he flew back on his friend’s private plane on the 5th to Boise, and his assistant picked him up.

Idaho Dispatch spoke with Buck’s assistant, who said she picked him up in the early afternoon of May 5th at the Jackson Jet Center in Boise.

When Clark is sitting in his patrol vehicle, he can be heard leaving a message for Buck on the phone. Clark’s message says the paperwork is in the doorway, that he saw Buck through the doorway (who Buck says was his won), called him by name, and that he is unsure why Buck didn’t come and talk to him.

Buck tells Idaho Dispatch that Clark attempted to contact him 15 times during his short span at his home, which Buck described as harassment. He says that just over an hour after the initial contact, officers returned to the front door and retrieved the paperwork. That can also be seen in the bodycam footage.

In one of the unedited bodycam videos Idaho Dispatch reviewed, Clark makes contact on the phone with Buck. This contact was made after Clark said he had Buck inside the home. Buck informs Clark that he is in New York and asks him to stop harassing his kids at their home.

After speaking with Buck, Clark calls, who is presumed to be Buck’s ex-wife, described as “the protectant” in bodycam footage, and says that he saw Buck but refused to come outside.

Buck told Idaho Dispatch that even if he were home, he would not have answered the door and that the papers would still not have been properly served. When asked why he wouldn’t have come to the door, Buck said,

“I don’t answer the door for the police unless I call them. I have dealt with some corrupt police officers lately, and while there are some good officers, there isn’t a way for me to tell which ones are good and which are bad. Additionally, I was being harassed by my ex-wife and being accused of things I did not do. But, I was not home as the officer tried to claim in his message to me.”

According to Buck, his ex-wife had been “legally harassing” him for some time. Before this court order was issued in May, Buck says his ex-wife had tried six or seven other legal avenues to go after him, most of which he says have already been dismissed, including the civil protection order Clark was attempting to serve.

Buck says he has had full physical and legal custody of his kids since January as a result of his wife signing over custody and what Buck alleged are his ex-wife’s mental struggles and other issues. Buck says that individuals use the court system to try and modify custody agreements by filing things such as civil protection orders.

Despite the dispute, Buck says that according to Idaho Code 39-6310. Buck says the papers must be served in person and cannot be left on the doorstep or on the door handle.

Part of IC 39-6310 says,

“Order and service. (1) An order issued under this chapter along with a copy of the petition for a protection order, if the respondent has not previously received the petition, shall be personally served upon the respondent, except as provided in subsections (6), (7) and (8) of this section.”

There are exemptions to personnel service according to IC 39-6310, which include if the person has personally appeared before the court and received a copy, the person waived personal service rights, or if the order is a foreign protection order. Buck said that none of those exemptions applied to him.

In unedited bodycam footage reviewed by Idaho Dispatch, the officer leaves a message for Buck after knocking on his door multiple times and bringing his camera, telling him that he was properly served. However, the officer later says on additional bodycam footage that their legal team had advised them it was insufficient.

This may be why the officers decided to go back and retrieve the paperwork from Buck’s home door handle.

Buck also provided Idaho Dispatch with a legal document he obtained from the Ada County Courthouse, which is supposed to list the officers’ attempts to serve the papers. The document is called an “Affidavit of Service.”

Toward the bottom of the document (pictured below) is a list of dates and times attempts were made to serve the papers. However, May 5th (the date of the video) is not listed on the court document. Additionally, Clark’s bodycam footage states that he also visited the home on May 4th, which is also not listed on the affidavit of service document.

Idaho Dispatch’s understanding is that we could not obtain this document as it is sealed by the courts. The document appears authentic, with a timestamp in the top right corner from the court, but we could not independently verify its authenticity.

Idaho Dispatch contacted the Boise Police Department about the footage and the court paperwork to ask about the edited video and the alleged court document discrepancies. We also asked what training officers receive when serving papers to citizens.

Here is the email Idaho Dispatch received back from Haley Williams, a Public Information Officer for BPD:

Hi Greg, please do your own records request for this video so you can have a copy in its entirety. Here is also the policy that covers the service of Protection Orders. As with any incident where there is pending litigation we won’t be able to make specific comments about the incident for your story.

310.9.3 Service of Court Orders
State
If an officer determines that an otherwise valid foreign protection order cannot be enforced because the subject has not been notified or served with the order, the officer shall inform the subject of the order, shall make a reasonable effort to serve the order upon the subject, and allow the subject a reasonable opportunity to comply with the order before enforcing the order (Idaho Code 39-6306A(4)).

Buck tells Idaho Dispatch he is still considering a lawsuit against BPD but has not made a final decision. Buck says he is hoping for change and accountability within the police department.

Some of the questions Idaho Dispatch still has are:

Did Clark really see Buck through the doorway or at least believe he saw him? Buck says his son looks a lot like him, so maybe Clark was sure he saw Buck and didn’t believe Buck when he told him he was in New York.
Why did the officers believe they could just leave the paperwork on the door handle? Is that a common practice for them? If it is, would they work to correct it?

According to Buck, the danger is that if the papers blow away or someone else grabs them and the person doesn’t know, they will still have to follow an order they know nothing about.
Why are the May 4th and May 5th visits not on the Ada County court document? Does BPD dispute the authenticity? Do they not have to put each visit? Is there a second paper somewhere?

Idaho Dispatch will update this article with any additional evidence or pertinent information provided to us.

Here is the video Idaho Dispatch obtained: