Detreville v. Gurevich

Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit·Decided July 8, 2025·No. 24-1427·Unpublished

Opinion

FILED

United States Court of Appeals UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS Tenth Circuit

FOR THE TENTH CIRCUIT July 8, 2025

Christopher M. Wolpert

Clerk of Court

KEVIN DETREVILLE,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

v. No. 24-1427 (D.C. No. 1:21-CV-00638-PAB-MEH)

SERGEY GUREVICH; JULIE (D. Colo.) WEINHEIMER,

Defendants - Appellants.

ORDER AND JUDGMENT*

Before TYMKOVICH, MATHESON, and EID, Circuit Judges.

Kevin Detreville sued under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 based on his arrest for filming in the entryway of a Denver Police District (“DPD”) station. Defendant Officers Sergey Gurevich and Julie Weinheimer moved for summary judgment based on qualified immunity. The district court granted summary judgment on Mr. Detreville’s unlawful arrest claim because the officers had arguable probable cause to arrest him. The court found the officers had waived their qualified immunity defense on his retaliatory arrest, malicious prosecution, and equal protection claims and denied summary judgment on

*

This order and judgment is not binding precedent, except under the doctrines of law of the case, res judicata, and collateral estoppel.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.

those claims. The officers appeal, contending the court erred by not applying its arguable probable cause determination to grant qualified immunity on the three remaining claims.

Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291, we reverse the district court’s denial of summary judgment on the retaliatory arrest claim. We remand the malicious prosecution and equal protection claims for further proceedings.

I. BACKGROUND

A. Factual History1

On November 10, 2019, Mr. Detreville, who is Black, was filming with his cell phone at the Arie P. Taylor Municipal Center, which houses the DPD 5 station. The entryway at DPD 5—fully enclosed except for an open, double doorway—covers the front door of the station. A sign stating “POLICE” is located above the open doorway.

A sign inside the entryway and next to the front door of the station said, “NO VIDEO RECORDING is allowed in the Denver Police District 5 Station without prior permission from the Chief of Police.” App., Vol. 2 at 332-33; App., Vol. 3 at 558. The sign cites Colorado Revised Statutes § 18-9-117.

Mr. Detreville stepped into the entryway and filmed for about two minutes. While he filmed, Officer Gurevich told him, “We do not allow recording on our property. If you do not stop recording, we will have to arrest you.” App., Vol. 3 at 558-59.

1 “Because our interlocutory review of an order denying qualified immunity is typically limited to issues of law, this factual history is drawn from the district court’s recitation of the facts.” Paugh v. Uintah County, 47 F.4th 1139, 1147 n.2 (10th Cir. 2022) (quoting Crowson v. Washington County, 983 F.3d 1166, 1174 n.3 (10th Cir. 2020)).

Officer Weinheimer pointed to the sign prohibiting filming and said, “It’s actually written right there.” Id. at 559. Officer Gurevich again warned him to stop recording. Mr. Detreville responded, “[T]his is my First Amendment right.” Id. Officer Weinheimer said, “It’s not actually.” Id. The officers arrested Mr. Detreville.

That same day, Officer Gurevich signed a probable cause statement and a summons and complaint against Mr. Detreville. At Mr. Detreville’s arraignment on November 12, 2019, a state court magistrate judge found probable cause existed at the time of the arrest and ruled that he could be released on bond.

On November 13, 2019, John Reed, who is white, filmed while inside the DPD 5 station entryway but was not arrested. Officer Gurevich, but not Officer Weinheimer, was working at the station desk that day, from which he could view video of the entryway from security cameras.

Mr. Detreville’s case was dismissed on March 2, 2020.

B. Section 1983 and Qualified Immunity Section 1983 provides that a person acting under color of state law who “subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States . . . to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured.” 42 U.S.C. § 1983.

“Persons sued under § 1983 in their individual capacity may invoke the defense of qualified immunity.” Duda v. Elder, 7 F.4th 899, 909 (10th Cir. 2021). “[Q]ualified immunity protects government officials from liability for civil damages insofar as their

conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights . . . .” Pearson v. Callahan, 555 U.S. 223, 231 (2009) (quotations omitted).

“When a § 1983 defendant raises the qualified immunity defense, the burden shifts to the plaintiff. To overcome qualified immunity, a plaintiff must show (1) facts that demonstrate the officials violated a federal constitutional or statutory right, which (2) was clearly established at the time of the defendant’s conduct,” Sawyers v. Norton, 962 F.3d 1270, 1282 (10th Cir. 2020) (citation omitted)—the two prongs of qualified immunity.

“A clearly established right is one that is sufficiently clear that every reasonable official would have understood that what he is doing violates that right.” Mullenix v. Luna, 577 U.S. 7, 11 (2015) (per curiam) (quotations omitted). “A Supreme Court or Tenth Circuit decision on point or the weight of authority from other courts can clearly establish a right . . . .” A.N. ex rel. Ponder v. Syling, 928 F.3d 1191, 1197 (10th Cir. 2019) (quotations omitted). The relevant “precedent is considered on point if it involves ‘materially similar conduct’ or applies ‘with obvious clarity’ to the conduct at issue.” Lowe v. Raemisch, 864 F.3d 1205, 1208 (10th Cir. 2017) (quotations omitted). “[A] case directly on point” is not necessary if “existing precedent [has] placed the statutory or constitutional question beyond debate.” White v. Pauly, 580 U.S. 73, 79 (2017) (per curiam) (quotations omitted).

C. Procedural History

Mr. Detreville brought four § 1983 claims. The district court granted summary judgment to the officers on his Fourth Amendment unlawful arrest claim based on

qualified immunity.2 It denied summary judgment on his First Amendment retaliatory arrest, Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution, and Fourteenth Amendment equal protection claims.3 On the unlawful arrest claim, the district court said that the officers “had no probable cause to believe that Mr. Detreville was violating the directive on the sign because it is undisputed that Mr. Detreville was outside of the Station’s door when he was recording.” App., Vol. 3 at 572; see also id. at 589. But the court said the officers “had arguable probable cause to arrest Mr. Detreville under Colo. Rev. Stat. § 18-9-117.” Id. at 578; see also id. at 589. It said “an officer could have made a reasonable mistake that the phrase ‘in’ the Station included the mostly enclosed physical structure attached to the front of the building,” so “an officer could have reasonably believed that the sign prohibited video recording in the entryway.” Id. at 576-77. Based on this arguable probable cause finding, the court granted the officers qualified immunity on the unlawful arrest claim.

The district court determined that a reasonable jury could find constitutional violations on the retaliatory arrest, malicious prosecution, and equal protection claims.

2 Mr. Detreville moved for partial summary judgment on three claims against Officer Gurevich, which the district court denied in its entirety.

3 Mr. Detreville brought his Fourth Amendment malicious prosecution claim against only Officer Gurevich. He brought the remaining claims against both officers. On the equal protection claim, the district court granted summary judgment to Officer Weinheimer and denied it to Officer Gurevich. Only the latter ruling is at issue in this appeal.

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