Lake County officers face federal court charges

MISSOULA — Three Polson Police officers and two Lake

County Sheriff’s deputies will appear in front of a federal judge

in Missoula this week, facing claims that members of the group

violated a man’s civil and constitutional rights and used excessive

force which caused physical pain and emotional trauma, resulting in

lost income when they mistakenly entered his Polson property in

June 2009.

The plaintiff, Patrick Haun, is seeking over $300,000

in compensatory and punitive damages for violations of his civil

and constitutional rights as well as additional sums relating to

medical expenses and lost income.

According to Haun’s preliminary pretrial statement

filed on Dec. 30, 2011, on June 2, 2009, at approximately 2:19

a.m., defendants PPD Sergeant Wade Nash, officer Anthony Dentler

and LCSO Deputies Daniel Duryee and Jeff Ford responded to a

domestic dispute call at a Polson apartment building. When attempts

to enter the apartment through the front door were unsuccessful,

officer Nash, the sergeant in charge, decided to boost deputy

Duryee through the largest of three open windows and into a bedroom

instead. 

The document states, Haun, who had been asleep on a

couch, was startled awake and frightened by deputy Duryee and was

unable to recognize him as an officer in the dimly lit room. When

the plaintiff did not comply with the deputy’s commands, he was

immediately taken to the floor with a “body-slam action,” arrested,

forcibly handcuffed and brought to his feet. After the officers

realized they were in the wrong apartment and had arrested the

wrong man, they did not immediately release him, Haun said,

maintaining that at no time was he a threat to the defendants.

Then Polson Police Chief Doug Chase is charged as

well because, the document states, he was negligent in his training

of the city officers who led the investigation.

The joint preliminary pretrial statement filed on

Dec. 12 by attorneys for defendants Chase, Nash and Dentler tells a

slightly different story. According to that statement, officers

yelled several times into the open window. Upon entering, deputy

Duryee did identify himself as an officer, at which point Haun

began to yell profanities and resist arrest. He said, “You’re lucky

I don’t have a gun. You would have had a f**** bullet in your

head,” the document states. When asked why he didn’t respond to the

officers’ announcements, Haun stated that he “doesn’t jump to your

calls.”

Chase, Nash and Dentler contend, among other things,

that they had adequate cause to enter the apartment – that it was

an objectively understandable and reasonable mistake – and that the

circumstances do not amount to a violation of the plaintiff’s civil

or constitutional rights or clearly established law, and finally,

that the plaintiff’s own negligence or wrongful acts or omissions

caused his damages or injuries when he did not respond to law

enforcement when it announced its presence. 

Deputies Duryee and Ford filed a motion to dismiss

without prejudice, which was denied on Dec. 21, but say in their

joint statement that at all times they acted within the course and

scope of their employment with the Lake County Sheriff’s

Office.

A preliminary pretrial conference is set for 11 a.m.

on Friday, Jan. 6 in the Russell Smith Courthouse in Missoula.