Opinion ID: 891216
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Investigation of V.W. Complaint

Text: The defendants named in this claim were Chief Gardner, Deputy Chief Zen, PSA Dyer, and the City. PSA Dyer conducted the internal investigation of V.W.’s complaint alleging that Officer Coyne sexually assaulted her following consensual sex. Ms. Schneider alleged that the internal investigation was inadequate because PSA Dyer did not update the background check from when Officer Coyne was hired. She argues that, had he updated the hiring background check and/or obtained MCSO’s complete personnel file, the A.L. complaint would have been revealed. In turn, Chief Gardner testified at his deposition that if he had learned of the A.L. complaint during the V.W. investigation, he would have dismissed Officer Coyne. Therefore, Ms. Schneider contends, if PSA Dyer had performed a more thorough investigation, Officer Coyne would not have been in a position to attack her. She - 27 - further asserts that Chief Gardner ratified PSA Dyer’s decision not to update the earlier background investigation. The claim against Deputy Chief Zen is waived, and the claims against the other individual defendants and the City fail for lack of evidence of deliberate indifference.
Ms. Schneider has not argued on appeal how the district court erred in granting judgment in favor of Deputy Chief Zen on this claim, and thus we do not consider the allegations against him. See Bronson, 500 F.3d at 1104. That leaves the allegations against Chief Gardner and PSA Dyer. PSA Dyer communicated numerous times with the MSCO officer in charge of the criminal investigation into V.W.’s allegations of sexual assault against Officer Coyne. He also did other preliminary work, such as reviewing Officer Coyne’s e- mail messages and telephone calls for anything relevant to the V.W. complaint, and he sat in on the MSCO officer’s interview of Officer Coyne. By the time he did the internal investigation, PSA Dyer had a copy of the entire criminal file compiled by MSCO and had been briefed by the investigating officer and deputy district attorney regarding their analyses of the criminal investigation. PSA Dyer also separately interviewed Officer Coyne. Consistent with our analysis of the hiring claim, PSA Dyer’s failure to update the 2006 background investigation did not make the internal investigation of the - 28 - V.W. complaint inadequate. The MSCO conducted the criminal investigation regarding the V.W. complaint, yet the A.L. complaint did not come to light even though MCSO had the A.L. complaint in its files. Neither PSA Dyer nor Chief Gardner had information indicating any need to update the background investigation, much less know that an obvious consequence of not updating the background investigation created a substantial risk of constitutional injury. Accordingly, we agree with the district court that a rational jury could not find that PSA Dyer or Chief Gardner acted with deliberate indifference.
As was the case with PSA Dyer and Chief Gardner, the City had no notice of any reason to update Officer Coyne’s background investigation. The individual defendants were not deliberately indifferent, so judgment in favor of the City on a claim predicated on their decisions also was appropriate. See Brown, 520 U.S. at 415-16; see also Brown v. Gray, 227 F.3d 1278, 1289 (10th Cir. 2000) (stating that to proceed with municipal liability claim, “the plaintiff must show that a policymaker, which could be the chief of police, among others, was deliberately indifferent”).7 7 In addition, PSA Dyer is not a policymaker for the City. In seeking to impose municipal liability, Ms. Schneider contends that Chief Gardner ratified PSA Dyer’s decision not to update the background investigation. “However, a municipality will not be found liable under a ratification theory unless a final decisionmaker ratifies an employee’s specific unconstitutional actions, as well as the basis for these actions.” Bryson v. City of Okla. City, 627 F.3d 784, 790 (10th Cir. 2010). Given that PSA Dyer’s actions were not unconstitutional, Chief Gardner’s alleged ratification of those actions does not impose liability on the City. - 29 -