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A third longtime former captain's lawsuit is nearing a settlement. 

Each alleged they faced retaliation for reporting unlawful conduct committed by high-ranking State Patrol officials.

Last month, Lancaster County District Judge Andrew Jacobsen affirmed Matthew Sutter's firing for "conduct unbecoming." Sutter first challenged his firing and now is alleging it was retaliation. 

Sutter, who had been with the State Patrol for 15 years, at one point oversaw the agency's professional standards division.

On Dec. 20, Kurt Von Minden, who worked for the State Patrol for 25 years, sued the state of Nebraska, alleging he'd been discriminated against for, among other things, reporting two troopers for using anti-LGBTQ slurs in instant messages on their state-owned computers.

In the first case, Sutter filed an agency appeal last year, asking a judge to reverse his firing, which was upheld by the State Personnel Board.

On Nov. 14, 2022, Col. John Bolduc signed his written decision to fire Sutter for sharing "law enforcement sensitive" information with an Omaha TV reporter about a visit to Iowa by then-President Donald Trump in 2019 and a visit to Nebraska by Vice President Mike Pence in 2018. 

Sutter's attorney, Steven Delaney, asked the judge to reverse his termination and award him back pay, saying Bolduc didn't have just cause to terminate him and the State Personnel Board erred by failing to reverse his decision despite finding the State Patrol had violated its own standard operating procedure. 

"Employees should be afforded the opportunity to address the allegations and try to refute them with the agency director prior to being placed on administrative suspension, but Sutter was not afforded that right," Delaney wrote.

As for the release of information, he said, while Bolduc indicated it created a safety risk, there was no evidence the Secret Service had made such a finding.

Delaney alleged Sutter's firing had been retaliation over "instances where he either voiced disagreement or took actions that NSP, and specifically Colonel Bolduc disagreed with."

Erik Fern, then Assistant Nebraska Attorney General, said the investigation showed Sutter also had shared information about NSP employees testifying in the El Chapo trial, the arrival of a plane of COVID patients in Omaha early in the pandemic and about an active SWAT call.

"The record as a whole shows a cornucopia of facts and circumstances that justify a reasonable employer to terminate employment," he wrote in a brief. 

Fern said Sutter even acknowledged in a text he felt "dirty" and "slimy" for sharing the information with the reporter, whom he had been interested in romantically.

In a decision Dec. 10, Jacobsen found the State Patrol did have just cause to fire Sutter for sharing confidential agency information with a reporter apparently in an effort to win her affections.

"His actions were unprofessional, bad public relations, and very unbecoming of an officer," the judge wrote. 

And he rejected the idea that the State Patrol had retaliated against Sutter because he had butted heads in the agency over the discipline of two other employees. 

Jacobsen said Bolduc was justified in concluding that the agency could no longer trust Sutter. He said the misconduct was especially serious because he had attained the rank of a captain. 

In Von Minden's lawsuit -- filed on the heels of the Sutter ruling -- his attorney, Thomas Freeman, said his performance for the State Patrol always had been satisfactory.

In 2019, he'd been named supervisor of the year while running troop areas in North Platte and Scottsbluff, and Bolduc had told him what he was doing to turn around those troop areas was "nothing short of a miracle."

Von Minden now alleges he started to have issues after forwarding to Internal Affairs instant messages between two troopers where they had used anti-LGBTQ slurs and made unprofessional remarks about NSP officers, including Von Minden. 

Freeman said the lieutenant, who was close friends with the two troopers, shut down the investigation. 

He alleged Von Minden also was removed from an investigation into another lieutenant's alleged misconduct for ordering a subordinate to call a retired Hispanic officer a racial slur at a law enforcement conference. 

Freeman said the lieutenant was the subject of five internal affairs investigations, including allegations of a sexual assault and harassment of a subordinate, when he resigned. 

Freeman said that in 2021 another employee, a sergeant who led a drug task force, resigned while under investigation for allegedly being in business with a suspected drug dealer. 

He said both continue to work in law enforcement, the result of the State Patrol's failure to inform prosecutors or the Nebraska Law Enforcement Training Center about its current or former employees who "have a history of untruthfulness, bias, lack of integrity, history of committing certain types of crimes, etc. which might reflect on the officer’s credibility."

Freeman said, that despite its Constitutional obligation, the State Patrol has failed to make the disclosures, "tainting every investigation and prosecution" that involves or relies on their testimony.

The Attorney General's Office hasn't yet responded to the lawsuit on the State Patrol's behalf. 

The state appears to be settling the claims of a third longtime State Patrol captain, Gerald Krolikowski Jr., who led the Carrier Enforcement Division until July 2020. 

His attorney, Kelly Brandon, had alleged he was retaliated against after reporting his belief that the State Patrol was using carrier enforcement funds for things like SWAT and hazardous device technicians, contrary to state statutes and its contract with the Nebraska Department of Transportation. 

It included about $670,000 in salaries being committed to functions outside of what statutory and contract language allowed and carrier enforcement vehicles with low miles being transferred to other divisions for non-carrier-enforcement activities, according to the lawsuit.

Brandon said Krolikowski's loyalty to the agency was questioned in a meeting in 2020, and Bolduc allegedly said the State Patrol would continue to use carrier enforcement funds for other purposes until being told they couldn't.

In May 2020, Krolikowski was placed on investigatory suspension for a complaint eventually found to be unsubstantiated. But he was stripped of his position as commander, then lost his car and office. 

In 2021, he was passed up for the Carrier Enforcement commander position he'd previously held for 13 years. 

In October, Brandon informed the court the parties had entered into a settlement, which the Legislature will have to approve when the session begins.