Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-ca10-89-01147/USCOURTS-ca10-89-01147-0/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 440
Nature of Suit: Other Civil Rights
Cause of Action: 

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UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 

TENTH CIRCUIT 

MAR 2 0 1990 

!\OBERT L. HOECKER 

Clerk 

CAPT. MICHAEL D. MUIR, ) 

) 

Plaintiff-Appellant, ) 

) 

V • ) 

) 

TIMOTHY KURETICH, Chief of Police; ) 

TOWN OF FAIRPLAY; PARK COUNTY ) 

BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS, ) 

) 

Defendants-Appellees. ) 

ORDER AND JUDGMENT* 

No. 89-1147 

(D.C. No. 85-B-2186) 

(D. Colorado) 

Before LOGAN, MOORE, and ANDERSON, Circuit Judges. 

After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel 

has determined unanimously that oral argument would not materially 

assist the determination of this appeal. See Fed. R. App. P. 

34(a); 10th Cir. R. 34.1.9. The case is therefore ordered submitted without oral argument. 

Plaintiff Michael Muir appeals the district court's grant of 

summary judgment against defendants, the town of Fairplay, 

Colorado, its former chief of police, Timothy Kuretich, and the 

* This order and judgment has no precedential value and shall not 

be cited, or used by any court within the Tenth Circuit, except 

for purposes of establishing the doctrines of the law of the case, 

res judicata, or collateral estoppel. 10th Cir. R. 36.3. 

Appellate Case: 89-1147 Document: 01019966399 Date Filed: 03/20/1990 Page: 1 
,. 

Board of Commissioners of Park County Colorado, in this civil 

rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. We affirm summary judgment 

for the county, but reverse and remand with respect to the city 

defendants. 

On appeal, plaintiff claims that he raised a factual question 

whether he was denied due process and equal protection by a 

pattern of harassment by city and county employees. The central 

allegations of harassment concern the practice of Fairplay police 

officers chasing and shadowing plaintiff in squad cars when he 

rode through Fairplay on his horse and detaining plaintiff in 

order to verbally abuse him. Plaintiff also alleges that his 

horses were injured by dogs that the county allowed to roam in 

packs and that he was denied reasonable access to federal lands. 

A magistrate recommended that summary judgment be granted for the 

defendants, and the district court adopted the magistrate's 

recommendations. 

We construe plaintiff's claims of harassment as falling under 

the Due Process Clause's substantive protection from governmental 

"abuse of power," Daniels v. Williams, 474 U.S. 327, 332 (1986), 

which "shocks the conscience," Rochin v. California, 342 U.S. 165, 

172 (1952). On the authority of Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U.S. 517, 

533 (1984), the magistrate said that plaintiff could not base a 

§ 1983 suit on allegations of misuse of a public vehicle because 

he had not pursued his Colorado statutory tort remedy. But the 

Hudson v. Palmer and Parratt v. Taylor, 451 U.S. 527 (1981), 

exhaustion doctrine is only applicable to procedural due process 

claims, not those based on substantive due process. Gilmere v. 

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Appellate Case: 89-1147 Document: 01019966399 Date Filed: 03/20/1990 Page: 2 
City of Atlanta, 774 F.2d 1495, 1500 (11th Cir. 1985), cert. 

denied, 476 U.S. 1115 & 1124 (1986). 

Arbitrary or abusive action by police, in certain 

circumstances, may violate substantive due process. See, ~, 

Benigni v. City of Hemet, 879 F.2d 473, 478 (9th Cir. 1989) 

(affirming jury verdict against police for harassment designed to 

drive plaintiff out of business); Checki v. Webb, 785 F.2d 534, 

538 (5th Cir. 1986) (complaint was sufficient that alleged a highspeed police chase which exposed plaintiffs to unreasonable risk 

of physical injury). Vague and conclusory allegations of 

continual police harassment are insufficient to avoid summary 

judgment. See Emmons v. McLaughlin, 874 F.2d 351, 354-55 (6th 

Cir. 1989); Guys & Dolls Billiards, Inc. v. McHale, No. 87-1619 

(4th Cir. April 18, 1988) (memorandum disposition at 846 F.2d 71; 

text available on WESTLAW), cert. denied, 109 S. Ct. 227 (1988). 

But prose civil rights litigants, such as plaintiff, are 

generally held to less stringent standards than are those 

represented by counsel. See Haines v. Kerner, 404 U.S. 519, 520 

(1972). We believe that plaintiff's amended complaint, together 

with affidavits and portions of his deposition, raise a genuine 

factual issue of whether there was a pattern of harassment by 

Fairplay police officers which "crossed the 'constitutional 

line.'" Checki, 785 F.2d at 538. In addition to the pattern of 

harassment by Fairplay police officers, plaintiff raises an issue 

as to whether this practice was approved by Fairplay's police 

commissioner. However, plaintiff's allegations as to harassment 

by county employees do not rise to the level of policy or custom 

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Appellate Case: 89-1147 Document: 01019966399 Date Filed: 03/20/1990 Page: 3 
I 

necessary to impose liability on the county. See Monell v. 

Department of Social Services of New York, 436 U.S. 658, 690-691 

(1978). 

Plaintiff's equal protection claim lacks merit. Likewise, 

the magistrate properl y disposed of plaintiff's claims concerning 

packs of wild dogs and access to federal lands. 

The district court's order of summary judgment for the Board 

of Commissioners of Park County, Colorado is AFFIRMED, and the 

remainder of the order is REVERSED AND REMANDED for further 

proceedings consistent with this opinion. The mandat e shall i ssue 

forthwi th . 

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Entered for the Court 

James K. Logan 

Circuit Judge 

Appellate Case: 89-1147 Document: 01019966399 Date Filed: 03/20/1990 Page: 4