UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS 

FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT 

_________________________________ 

IKEM HARLAND, 

 Plaintiff - Appellant, 

v. 

KANSAS CITY, KANSAS POLICE 

DEPARTMENT, 

 Defendant - Appellee. 

No. 21-3207 

(D.C. No. 2:21-CV-02060-EFM-JPO) 

(D. Kan.) 

_________________________________ 

ORDER AND JUDGMENT*

_________________________________ 

Before PHILLIPS, MURPHY, and EID, Circuit Judges.**

_________________________________ 

Plaintiff-Appellant Ikem Harland filed suit in the District of Kansas against the 

Kansas City, Kansas Police Department (“the Police Department”), alleging false 

arrest and abuse while he was incarcerated. Harland struggled to comply with the 

district court’s orders to file an amended complaint and provide sufficient 

information to issue summonses. Ultimately, the Police Department moved to 

dismiss the suit for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, as 

* This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines 

of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel. It may be cited, however, for 

its persuasive value consistent with Fed. R. App. P. 32.1 and 10th Cir. R. 32.1. ** After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined 

unanimously to honor the parties’ request for a decision on the briefs without oral 

argument. See Fed. R. App. P. 34(f); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore 

submitted without oral argument. 

FILED 

United States Court of Appeals 

Tenth Circuit 

July 15, 2022

Christopher M. Wolpert 

Clerk of Court

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required by Fed. R. Civ. P. 12(b)(6). The district court granted the motion. Harland 

now appeals the district court’s grant of the Police Department’s motion to dismiss. 

Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we affirm. 

I.

On February 3, 2021, Harland filed suit pro se against the Police Department 

asserting that he was “[a]rrested on false charges and spent 7 month[s] in jail getting 

abused.” R. at 9. Harland also requested appointment of counsel. 

The court denied the motion for appointment of counsel and ordered Harland 

to show “why this case should not be dismissed for lack of subject-matter 

jurisdiction.” Id. at 13. In the order, the court noted that “[Harland] hasn’t offered 

any basis for federal-court jurisdiction” and failed to state 

when [he] was arrested, by which officer(s) he was arrested, for what he 

was supposedly arrested, what facts support [his] contention that he was 

arrested on false charges, what the status or outcome of those charges 

might be, or how, when, and by whom [he] allegedly was abused in jail 

after he was arrested. 

Id. at 17–18. 

To show cause, Harland filed a response with additional facts regarding his 

May 2, 2019, arrest and complaints of abuse during imprisonment. Harland provided 

the date of his arrest but failed to include dates accompanying his allegations and 

failed to associate causes of action with these allegations. The court found these 

facts sufficient to demonstrate Harland “may be stating a claim of civil rights 

violations” under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and did not dismiss his case. Id. at 22. The court 

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then requested that Harland file a notice naming his defendants, and the specific 

causes of action against them. 

In response, Harland sent the court a list of police officers’ names designated 

as defendants, alleging that they “made [a] fake video and sign[ed] the witness 

statement.” Id. at 25. Harland also included a list of correctional officers’ names 

designated as defendants, alleging that they had abused him by “feeding [him] a sack 

lunch three times a day for a month and a half”; causing “[b]odily harm”; “using 

psychological warfare tactics”; and “put[ting] a false charge of a stabbing selfdefense,” which placed Harland in isolation. Id. The court then directed Harland to 

file an amended complaint that listed each defendant in the complaint’s caption, 

pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. P. 15, and requested that Harland set forth what each named 

defendant did that Harland contends gives rise to his claims. 

Harland failed to file an amended complaint and instead sent the court a 

“response” stating that he had subpoenaed a correctional officer but not yet received 

an answer. Harland did not identify the correctional officer he allegedly subpoenaed. 

The court extended Harland’s deadline to file the amended complaint to April 2, 

2021, and requested that he designate any unidentified defendant as “John Doe” or 

“Jane Doe” in the complaint’s caption, along with the unidentified defendants’ 

conduct that led to his claims. Id. at 29–30. 

Harland filed an amended complaint, in which he listed thirteen paragraphs of 

allegations against several John and Jane Does. The court then ordered Harland to 

provide addresses for all defendants by April 20, 2021, in order to prepare the 

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appropriate summonses, but Harland failed to respond with addresses for the John 

and Jane Doe defendants by that date. As a result, the court did not add the 

unidentified defendants as parties to the case and retained the Police Department as 

the only defendant. 

In response to Harland’s complaint, the Police Department filed a motion to 

dismiss, arguing that, pursuant to Rule 12(b), (1) the district court lacked subject 

matter jurisdiction; (2) Harland failed to state a claim upon which relief could be 

granted; (3) Harland provided insufficient process; and (4) Harland provided 

insufficient service of process. Harland responded to the motion by renewing his 

allegations from previous filings and again included the list of individuals he 

designated as defendants. 

The court granted the Police Department’s motion and dismissed Harland’s 

claims under Rule 12(b)(6) because his “pleadings [did] not assert the circumstances 

surrounding the false charges or provide any factual basis tying the Police 

Department or its employees to the misconduct,” and he failed to “provide any detail 

regarding the dates or circumstances” of the alleged “tortious conduct by various 

John and Jane Does.” Id. at 51. 

Harland timely appealed the order granting the Police Department’s motion to 

dismiss. 

II. 

We review de novo a district court’s grant of a motion to dismiss for failure to 

state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6). Albers v. Bd. Of Cty. Comm’rs of Jefferson Cty., 

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Colo., 771 F.3d 697, 700 (10th Cir. 2014). At the motion to dismiss stage, we accept 

the non-movant’s well-pleaded allegations as true and view them in the light most 

favorable to him. Warnick v. Cooley, 895 F.3d 743, 750–51 (10th Cir. 2018). 

Although we construe Harland’s pro se pleadings liberally, “the court cannot take on 

the responsibility of serving as the litigant’s attorney in constructing arguments and 

searching the record.” Garrett v. Selby Connor Maddux & Janer, 425 F.3d 836, 840 

(10th Cir. 2005) (quoting Hall v. Bellmon, 935 F.2d 1106, 1110 (10th Cir. 1991)). 

Pro se litigants must still “follow the same rules of procedure that govern other 

litigants.” Id. (quoting Nielson v. Price, 17 F.3d 1276, 1277 (10th Cir. 1994)). 

III. 

On appeal, Harland contends that the district court erred in dismissing his 

complaint because (1) the Police Department “[made] a fake video of someone in 

[Harland’s] clothing running from the cops”; (2) the discovery “shows [the police] 

blowing out [Harland’s] wheel tire on Minnesota [Street]” and without a back wheel, 

he could not have been “able to make it [to] that house” where he was arrested; and 

(3) the district court misapplied the law and should have taken notice of the “officer 

misconduct” and “filling out a false statement” claims. Aplt. Br. at 3–4. Harland 

also asserts on appeal that he “never got [his] day in court” and the district court’s 

judgment was motivated by “trying to protect their own.” Id. at 4. Harland failed to 

raise any of these arguments in response to the Police Department’s motion to 

dismiss, and therefore they are not preserved for appellate review and are waived. 

See Impact Energy Res., LLC v. Salazar, 693 F.3d 1239, 1246 n.3 (10th Cir. 2012) 

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(explaining that failure to raise issues in district court at the appropriate time waives 

appellate review). Therefore, we will only review whether Harland successfully 

stated a claim upon which relief can be granted pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6). 

Despite liberally construing Harland’s filings and assuming he intended to 

bring a § 1983 claim and a common law claim for false arrest under Kansas law, we 

find that Harland has failed to state a claim. To survive a Rule 12(b)(6) motion to 

dismiss, Harland’s “complaint must contain enough allegations of fact, taken as true, 

‘to state a claim to relief that is plausible on its face.’” Khalik v. United Air Lines, 

671 F.3d 1188, 1190 (10th Cir. 2012) (quoting Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 

U.S. 544, 570 (2007)). Harland’s factual allegations “must be enough to raise a right 

to relief above the speculative level” and he must frame the complaint “with enough 

factual matter (taken as true) to suggest” that he is entitled to relief. Twombly, 550 

U.S. at 555–56. He has not succeeded in doing so. 

Harland’s complaint fails to recount the facts surrounding his alleged injury, 

namely the “who, what, and when supporting his claims for relief.” Barnes v. N.M. 

Dep’t of Corr., No. 21-2095, 2022 WL 2189548, at *2 (10th Cir. June 17, 2022) 

(unpublished).1

 In the Statement of the Claim section of the district court’s pro se 

civil complaint form, Harland was instructed to “[s]tate what each defendant did that 

violated the right(s) of the plaintiff, including dates and places of such conduct by the 

defendant(s).” R. at 9. In this section, Harland simply wrote that he “was arrested on 

1

 Unpublished cases are not binding precedent, but we consider them for their 

persuasive value. See Fed. R. App. P. 32.1; 10th Cir. R. 32.1. 

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false charges and spent 7 months in jail getting abused.” Id. (cleaned up). Harland 

failed to provide sufficient facts to tie specific individuals to his allegations that the 

Police Department falsely charged him or that the correctional officers abused him 

while imprisoned, and failed to provide any dates for these allegations. 

In the Relief section, Harland wrote that he wanted “the cops to get in trouble 

and money for [his] pain and suffery [sic].” Id. at 10. He also claimed actual 

damages and punitive damages and was instructed to “state the amounts claimed and 

the reasons you claim you are entitled to recover monetary damages,” but Harland 

simply wrote “1 million dollars” and did not include any reasons he may be entitled 

to recover that amount. Id. Even after multiple attempts by the court to assist 

Harland in filing a sufficient complaint, he failed to set forth his claims. 

Harland also asserts on appeal that the court failed to take notice of his claims 

of “officer misconduct” and “filling out a false statement.” Aplt. Br. at 3–4. But the 

court did take notice of these arguments, and it determined that Harland’s pleadings 

did not “provide any factual basis tying the Police Department or its employees to the 

misconduct in jail” and “do not assert circumstances surrounding the false charges.” 

R. at 51. We agree. 

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IV. 

Because Harland failed to allege facts to state a claim for relief that is 

plausible on its face, his complaint must be dismissed. Accordingly, we AFFIRM. 

Entered for the Court 

Allison H. Eid 

Circuit Judge 

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