Warren v. City of Junction City, Kan.
| Decision Date | 26 October 2001 |
| Docket Number | No. 01-2110-JWL.,01-2110-JWL. |
| Citation | 176 F.Supp.2d 1118 |
| Parties | John M. WARREN, Plaintiff, v. CITY OF JUNCTION CITY, KS., Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Kansas |
Michael E. Francis, Alan V. Johnson, Sloan, Listrom, Eisenbarth, Sloan & Glassman, Topeka, KS, for Plaintiff.
Donald Patterson, Fisher, Patterson, Sayler & Smith, Topeka, KS, for Defendant.
Former Chief of Police John Warren filed suit against the City of Junction City ("the city") alleging that the steps taken by the city in terminating his employment were improper. The plaintiff asserts two theories of recovery under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. He alleges his termination deprived him of both property and liberty interests without comporting with the constitutional requirements of procedural due process. He also asserts a state law breach of contract claim. Before the court is the defendant's summary judgment motion (Doc. 25). The motion is granted as to the property interest and state law breach of contract claims because Kansas law forecloses a city manager from entering into an implied contract and, in the alternative, the plaintiff fails to raise a genuine issue of material fact as to whether an implied contract was formed. The motion is denied as to the liberty interest claim because there is a genuine issue of material fact whether the city, in the course of its termination proceedings, adopted allegations published in a local newspaper that stigmatized the plaintiff, and which the plaintiff alleges are false.
The plaintiff was hired as the Junction City Chief of Police on October 7, 1996 by City Manager John Hepler. Throughout his employment, Junction City was a city of the first class with a city manager form of government established pursuant to K.S.A. § 12-1036b. On September 30, 1996, just before being hired, the plaintiff signed a form acknowledging that he received a copy of the Personnel Policies and Guidelines of the City of Junction City. The personnel manual contains three relevant sections: (1) the purpose section; (2) the grievance procedure section; and (3) the rules of conduct section. The purpose section explicitly states the city's policy that employment is at-will and may be terminated without cause and that nothing in the manual is intended to change that policy.
Mr. Hepler, his successor as city manager, Mr. Barnes and the plaintiff all testified that it was their custom to use the Personnel Policies and Guidelines. Both Mr. Barnes and Mr. Hepler point out, however, that a department head had not been disciplined under their tenures. The plaintiff also added that the human resources director told him that he could only terminate employees for cause. He further recalled that around the time he was hired, he asked Mr. Hepler for a contract. The plaintiff remembers Mr. Hepler's response as: "And he told me as long as I was doing my job and receiving good evaluations I wouldn't have to worry about a contract, I would be employed as the chief of police." Mr. Hepler did not contest the statement, but he did not remember making it.
The events which gave rise to the initiation of this lawsuit began in the summer of 1999 when several Citizens National Bank ("CNB") employees started to question the police department's investigation of one of their employees, Pete Arceo. Although it is not clear whether it was Bruce Woner, an attorney apparently hired by CNB, or Ed Rolfs, Sr. of CNB, one of the two met with Mr. Hepler in the summer of 1999 and told him that if the detective in charge of the Arceo case and the chief of police were not terminated, the city would be sued. In response, Mr. Hepler requested that the Kansas Attorney General investigate the Junction City Police Department ("JCPD").
On August 6, 1999, the first of several newspaper articles was published regarding the Arceo investigation. In the coming months, approximately 17 articles would be published. They all centered on one of the following: the Arceo case, a Grand Jury investigation of one of the detectives on the Arceo case, the JCPD, or the termination of the plaintiff.
On August 16, 1999, in the middle of the Arceo controversy, Mr. Hepler resigned as the city manager. Mr. Barnes became the interim city manager the next day. He was later named to the position permanently in February of 2000. The plaintiff recalled that on his first day as interim city manager, Mr. Barnes met with the department heads and he told them, "everything was staying the same."
In the fall of 1999, the scrutiny of the JCPD began to widen from just the Arceo investigation to the department as a whole. On October 4, 1999, attorney Bruce Woner sent a 51-page packet ("the Woner report") to each of the City Commissioners, the Mayor, and the City Manager. The packet contained, among other things, an Investigation Summary Relating to Arceo and the Junction City Police Department, dated October 1, 1999, of unidentified origin but "directed to the criminal defense team of Pete Arceo." Following receipt of the Woner report, Mr. Barnes and City Engineer Tom Neal (as a witness) met with Mr. Woner and two CNB representatives. The CNB team briefed Mr. Barnes on what they perceived to be the problems with the JCPD and they explained that they hired an investigative agency of retired police officers, Kelley & Associates, to prepare the October 1, 1999, summary that was part of the Woner report.
Several days after meeting with the CNB team, Mr. Barnes had a meeting with the City Commission. No action was taken. A few days later, however, Mr. Barnes wrote a letter to the plaintiff placing him on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation of the police department. At that time, Mr. Barnes informed the plaintiff of the allegations contained in the Woner report. In response to the allegations, on October 14, 1999, the city hired PSI, an agency run by a retired Highway Patrolman and a former police officer from Salina, to investigate the allegations against the plaintiff and the JCPD.
At some point after PSI was hired, City Commissioner Bill Levinson gave his copy of the Woner report to the press. The Daily Union, a Junction City newspaper, published a story on October 24, 1999 related to the hiring of PSI to investigate the allegations against the JCPD. The story summarized the allegations against the plaintiff that were set out in the Woner report. The story included the following allegations against the plaintiff: (1) he mismanaged the police department and ignored possible crimes; (2) he selectively enforced the law in three different investigations; (3) he obstructed justice in a claim filed by a police officer while the claim was being investigated by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation; (4) he unequally enforced policies regarding romantic relationships within the department; (5) he intimidated contract negotiators for a police union; and (6) he mismanaged the Arceo investigation.
On December 23, 1999, PSI concluded its investigation of the plaintiff and the JCPD. They submitted a report to Mr. Barnes. Mr. Barnes and the plaintiff met on January 4, 2000. Mr. Barnes terminated the plaintiff in a letter delivered that day. The letter did not give a reason for the plaintiff's termination. The plaintiff asked Mr. Barnes why he was terminated, and Mr. Barnes replied, "I said I did not think his management style would mesh with mine and I no longer needed his services."
Later that day, Mr. Barnes prepared a press release and gave it to the local newspapers. The Daily Union and Topeka Capital-Journal printed a paraphrased version of the release within the next few days. The Daily Union article dated January 4, 2000, stated that plaintiff's termination was not directly related to the city's investigation, but Mr. Barnes would not give a reason for the termination. The Topeka Capital-Journal article quoted Mr. Barnes as saying: "It's action that we took, that we felt was necessary, as a result of things that have occurred at the police department." Following the plaintiff's termination, he made a number of efforts for a grievance hearing. Mr. Barnes denied all of the plaintiff's attempts. Apparently in response to one of the plaintiff's requests for a grievance hearing, Mr. Barnes sent an additional letter to the plaintiff on January 11, 2000 which stated:
Your termination from employment with the City of Junction City was accomplished under our policy that the employment relation between the City and any employee is that of "at-will." Your termination was not a result of misconduct on your part as contemplated by the Grievance Policy cited in your letter but rather was done for the reason stated in my letter to you on January 4, 2000.
Following his termination, the plaintiff lived in Junction City until July of 2000. He applied for the position of Shawnee County Sheriff but withdrew his name for reasons unrelated to his experience in Junction City. He also applied for a number of positions in Michigan and Wisconsin but was denied the job because the prospective employers could not understand that he could be terminated withoutood cause. Effective July 1, 2000, the plaintiff became the Director of Police and Campus Safety at Washburn University.
Summary judgment is appropriate if the moving party demonstrates that there is "no genuine issue as to any material fact" and that it is "entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." Fed.R.Civ.P. 56(c). In applying this standard, the court views the evidence and all reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party. Adler v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 144 F.3d 664, 670 (10th Cir. 1998) (citing Matsushita Elec. Indus. Co. v. Zenith Radio Corp., 475 U.S. 574, 587, 106 S.Ct. 1348, 89 L.Ed.2d 538 (1986)). A fact is "material" if, under the applicable substantive law, it is "essential to the...
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