The district court, of course, was not the fact finder. We too think that the material facts were essentially beyond reasonable dispute. We appreciate the Wojciks' sense of outrage that they have been subject to two embarrassing inquiries that found no merit to any charge of child abuse. Where the government officials act reasonably and in good faith, there is usually no federal remedy. If the Wojciks were encouraged to think otherwise, their advisors were mistaken.
Official misconduct does occur and local officials sometimes do act out of malice or incompetence.
We have ourselves reversed the district court where we thought there was enough suspicion of official misconduct to defeat summary judgment or to require a section 1983 case to proceed to a jury. With that, the Wojciks will have to be content. There is a substantial question whether the Wojciks' appeal from the summary judgment order was timely, and a motion to dismiss that appeal is before us. The notice of appeal was filed late and the Crisis Center defendants contest on appeal the district court's finding of excusable neglect in allowing the Wojciks' belated motion to extend the time to appeal under Fed. This is a difficult question, see Gochis v. Allstate Ins.