Federal judge refuses to dismiss suit against Fort Collins over ex-officer's meritless DUI arrests

A federal judge last month agreed a man wrongly charged with drunk driving could sue the city of Fort Collins for failing to appropriately supervise one officer as he repeatedly arrested motorists who were not intoxicated.

Jesse Cunningham is one of several arrestees who filed suit over their encounters with Jason Haferman, the former "DUI officer" for Fort Collins Police Services. Cunningham's complaint described how Larimer County prosecutors dismissed the charges against Cunningham after his blood test results showed no intoxication — one of many instances in which Haferman wrongly arrested motorists for driving under the influence.

In a March 26 order, U.S. District Court Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney agreed Cunningham had credibly shown Fort Collins' own failure to train or supervise Haferman played a role in the alleged violation of Cunningham's constitutional rights.

"The fact that so many DUI charges originating from a single investigating officer were dismissed after chemical testing came back negative for any drugs and alcohol, in and of itself, would naturally create a need to review the officer’s performance during DUI stops to determine what corrective measures may be necessary," she wrote. Yet, the police department "did not effectively intervene or re-train him to prevent further baseless DUI arrests."

In 2022, KDVR reported Haferman had made roughly one dozen drunk driving arrests in which subsequent testing showed no drugs or alcohol. In one instance, a Larimer County judge acquitted an arrestee of Haferman's by finding the officer's testimony "lacks credibility" and was "contrary to the evidence."

At the end of that year, facing a disciplinary hearing after an internal investigation, Haferman chose to resign. District Attorney Gordon McLaughlin had previously raised his own concerns that Haferman's handling of DUI cases needed to "dramatically improve."

"I communicated to (Fort Collins police) in August of 2022 that my office would no longer be prosecuting cases in which former Officer Haferman was an essential witness," McLaughlin said upon Haferman's departure. "I arrived at this decision based on the overwhelming evidence my prosecutors and others had observed in many of Officer Haferman’s cases."

In his lawsuit, Cunningham, who lives in Lincoln, Neb., described a family vacation to Colorado in July 2021. After a rafting trip, he drank two light beers over the course of two hours. He then drove his family to where they were staying in Estes Park. Along the way, they witnessed a car accident and Cunningham stopped to render aid to an injured motorcyclist.

Cunningham's family waited at the scene. After Haferman arrived, he allegedly told Cunningham that "someone thought" they smelled alcohol on him. Cunningham acknowledged drinking two light beers and asked to do a breath test. Haferman refused the test and instead arrested Cunningham for DUI and child abuse, due to having his daughters in the car while driving. 

Haferman allegedly offered Cunningham's wife a breath test, but told her she could not drive after she blew a 0.06. He then transported Cunningham to jail and allegedly called Nebraska child welfare services to investigate Cunningham in his home state.

Cunningham alleged that three months later, his blood-alcohol test results came back with no drugs detected. Court records show the district attorney's office promptly dismissed the charges.

Cunningham sued Haferman for arrest without probable cause and malicious prosecution, and lodged a claim against the city for failing to train and supervise Haferman. Cunningham alleged that by 2021, Haferman was routinely misinterpreting normal behaviors as cues of drunkenness, writing reports that contained falsehoods, and muting or deactivating his body-worn camera during encounters.

"The sheer quantity of DUI arrests being made by Haferman by this point (over 100), in addition to the negative blood test results now repeatedly coming back on those arrests, should have alerted any reasonable supervising officer of the need to check Haferman’s work and ensure he was not violating the constitutional rights of innocent citizens like Plaintiff," wrote attorney Sarah Schielke.

Fort Collins moved to dismiss itself from the lawsuit, claiming there were no allegations the city knew about Haferman's constitutional violations and deliberately disregarded the misconduct.

Sweeney believed, to the contrary, the lawsuit alleged Fort Collins Police Services was on notice of a problem.

"A clear pattern or history of a single officer’s DUI charges being dismissed for lack of probable cause may demonstrate a high likelihood of similar future unconstitutional DUI arrests unless that officer is supervised differently," she wrote. "In that light, FCPS’s failure to take corrective action in the face of Officer Haferman’s pattern of meritless DUI arrests plausibly states a 'policy' of deficient supervision."

Schielke has similar cases currently in federal court against Haferman on behalf of other clients, including a second assigned to Sweeney that also has a motion to dismiss pending.

The case is Cunningham v. City of Fort Collins et al.