The city of Edgewater settled a lawsuit brought by one of its former employees, who accused the police department of sex-based discrimination.
EDGEWATER, Colo. — The city of Edgewater settled a federal lawsuit brought by former Edgewater Police Officer McKinzie Rees, agreeing to pay her $575,000.
Rees sued the city, the police department, and several other former and current city employees. Her suit included claims of sex-based discrimination and a hostile work environment.
“Going through it was for all the women that went before me, and then the future women that would deal with the same problems that I dealt with,” Rees told 9NEWS Investigates.
Edgewater’s City Manager told 9NEWS Investigates he’s glad the suit is over. The city did not admit any wrongdoing in the settlement, city leaders wrote in a press release. They described the suit as casting, “a negative pall upon the Edgewater Police Department.”
The announcement also misspelled McKinzie’s name.
While Rees filed the lawsuit last year, her accusations go back years, starting with the city’s 2019 Christmas party. Because of what happened that night, her former superior then-Sergeant Nathan Geerdes, recently pleaded guilty to crimes including “unlawful sexual contact” with Rees.
“I knew that I had to have closure in some aspect,” Rees said. :So creating that, was settling with them. But that doesn’t mean that what they did was right.”
She said she plans to leave law enforcement behind and she will always support officers, but she wants them to do better.
“It will always be a part of me, but it’s going to be the part of me that I leave behind while still supporting future officers,” she said.
Going forward, Rees plans to expand a dog day care business.
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