Kilgore v. City of Stroud

158 F. App'x 944
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
DecidedNovember 29, 2005
Docket04-6273
StatusUnpublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 158 F. App'x 944 (Kilgore v. City of Stroud) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kilgore v. City of Stroud, 158 F. App'x 944 (10th Cir. 2005).

Opinion

ORDER AND JUDGMENT *

TIMOTHY M. TYMKOVICH, Circuit Judge.

After examining the briefs and appellate record, this panel has determined unanimously to grant the parties’ request for a decision on the briefs without oral argument. See Fed. R.App. P. 34(f); 10th Cir. R. 34.1(G). The case is therefore ordered submitted without oral argument.

James Kilgore appeals from the district court’s grant of summary judgment to the City of Stroud, Oklahoma, Lucky Miller, and Glover Crittenden Mr. Kilgore brought a 42 U.S.C. § 1983 claim against the individual defendants arising from his arrest on drug charges. He asserted that they had violated his Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. Mr. Crittenden was Stroud’s chief of police and Mr. Miller was a sergeant in the police department.

Mr. Kilgore also brought state claims against the City under the Oklahoma Governmental Tort Claims Act, Okla. Stat. tit. 51, §§ 151-172, alleging that the City was liable for the torts of trespass upon the person, false arrest, assault, and battery committed by Officer Miller and Chief Crittenden. The district court granted summary judgment for Officer Miller and Chief Crittenden on the federal claims and, exercising pendant jurisdiction, granted summary judgment to the City on the s^e c^a™s- ^r. Kilgore appeals. We exercase jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. 1291, and affirm.

I. Background

Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 56(c), summary judgment shall be granted if the record shows that “there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law.” We review the district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo, applying the same legal standard as the district court. Johnson v. Lindon City Corp., 405 F.3d 1065, 1067-68 (10th Cir.2005). ‘We view the evidence and draw reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the nonmoving party.” Id. at 1068 (internal quotation marks omitted).

In April of 2003, Chief Crittenden and Officer Miller had information from a confidential informant that a man named Clifford Lewis and a woman named Jamie Hulls were buying over-the-counter decongestant tablets containing pseudoephedrine from the store manager at a local convenience store. The officers also had been informed that Ms. Hulls “was manufacturing methamphetamine at her residence with [Mr.] Lewis.” Aplt.App., Vol. 1, Doc. 7, Attach. A at 1. The officers knew that pseudoephedrine is a precursor ingredient for methamphetamine and that Mr. Lewis had previously been convicted of possessing methamphetamine. Officer Miller contacted the corporate offices of the convenience store and was shown a video tape of the store manager being *947 handed twenty boxes of decongestant tablets containing pseudoephedrine by a female customer and then placing the tablets in a sack behind the counter until the store was empty of other customers, at which time the manager rang up the sale of the tablets and the female customer departed.

Officer Miller contacted the store manager, asked her to come to the police station, and then confronted the manager with the incriminating video tape. The manager identified the woman in the video as Ms. Hulls and advised Officer Miller (1) that she had been ordering extra pseudoephedrine for Mr. Lewis and Ms. Hulls for eight weeks, (2) that either Mr. Lewis or Ms. Hulls would pick up the tablets on either Tuesdays or Thursdays, and (3) that “[Ms. Hulls] and [Mr.] Lewis were using the pseudoephedrine tablets to manufacture methamphetamine.” Id. at 2. The store manager also advised Officer Miller (4) that there was a pick-up scheduled for that day, April 24, 2003. The manager agreed to proceed with the sale and call Officer Miller on his cell phone when the tablets were purchased.

An hour after the store manager returned to her duties, Mr. Lewis arrived, entered the store, exited with a white plastic bag, and got back in his truck. The store manager called Officer Miller, who had been covertly watching the store, and told him that Mr. Lewis had “purchased a lot of pseudoephedrine tablets.” Id. at 3. Officer Miller immediately called Chief Crittenden, who was stationed nearby. Chief Crittenden intercepted. Mr. Lewis’s truck, pulling in front of it to prevent it from leaving the store’s parking lot. Officer Miller pulled his car along the passenger side of Mr. Lewis’ truck. Mr. Kilgore was seated next to Mr. Lewis in the front passenger seat of the truck. Officer Miller exited his car and, as he walked behind the truck, Mr. Lewis put the truck in reverse, revved the engine and began backing up. Officer Miller jumped out of the way to avoid being run over and fired two shots into the front passenger-side tire. Mr. Lewis kept driving in reverse through the parking lot but, once he realized his tire was flat, he fled on foot. He was apprehended by Chief Crittenden a block away from the store. While Chief Crittenden drove after Mr. Lewis, Officer Miller asked Mr. Kilgore to get in the back of Officer Miller’s police car so that Officer Miller could help Chief Crittenden search for Mr. Lewis. “Almost immediately, however, Chief Crittenden advised [Officer Miller] that he had located [Mr.] Lewis,” and returned to the convenience store. Id. at 4.

Officer Miller called for a tow truck in order to impound Mr. Lewis’ truck and then searched the vehicle in order to inventory the contents and complete a stored vehicle report. Among other things, Officer Miller found a case on the passenger side floorboard containing (1) sixty unused needles and syringes, and (2) a cigar box with a used needle and syringe inside. Officer Miller also found a plastic bag containing eleven boxes of decongestant tablets in the middle of the back seat. Mr. Kilgore and Mr. Lewis were both arrested. The next day, an Oklahoma state court judge found that probable cause existed for Mr. Kilgore’s arrest and detention for possession of a precursor substance with the intent to distribute. This charge was later dismissed after Mr. Kilgore had been in jail for approximately two months.

II. Analysis

Mr. Kilgore ask us to answer the following questions: (1) Were his Fourth Amendment and state law rights violated by the initial stop of Mr. Lewis’ truck, its subsequent search, and Mr. Kilgore’s ar *948 rest? (2) Were disputed questions of material fact present that would preclude summary judgment? The second of these questions is easily answered.

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Bluebook (online)
158 F. App'x 944, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kilgore-v-city-of-stroud-ca10-2005.