Evans

MEMORANDUM *

Plaintiff-Appellant Tamara Evans appeals the district court’s dismissal of her equal protection claims, raised under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 , pursuant to the defendants’ Rule 50(a) motion at the close of her case. She also appeals the district court’s refusal to instruct the jury on her claim of coworker retaliation. Defendant-Appellee City of Sparks cross-appeals the district court’s award of interim attorney’s fees pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1988 . We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we affirm.

This case is a disturbing one. The outcome reached in the district court and in this court should not be taken as an endorsement of the procedures of the City of Sparks or its police department.

Evans’s § 1983 claim against City Human Resources Director Sue Utterback fails because Evans introduced no substantial evidence at trial that could persuade a reasonable juror that Utterback was motivated by gender bias. In the course of her investigation into Evans’s complaint, Utterback failed to interview even a single alleged harasser. She simply concluded, in a two-page report, that no sexual harassment had occurred because, even though the officers made crude and…