Trial date set in Haun case
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MISSOULA — After a preliminary pretrial conference on Jan. 6, Judge Donald Molloy, Ninth Circuit Court, set a jury trial for Nov. 5 in a case brought by Patrick Haun against former Polson Police Chief Douglas Chase, Police Chief Wade Nash, Officer Anthony Dentler and Lake County Sheriff’s Deputies Daniel Duryee and Jeff Ford.
Haun is seeking more than $300,000 in compensatory damages for alleged violations of his fourth and 14th Amendment rights and assault and battery stemming from an incident on June 2, 2009.
According to the complaint, a call for a domestic dispute came in about 2:19 a.m. The domestic dispute was in Apartment 4, 418 First St. E., Polson; and Haun lived next door in Apartment 5. The female occupant of Apt. 4 was at the Lake County Sheriff’s Office making a complaint against her boyfriend, who had locked himself in the apartment and was refusing to respond or reply to officers. The female gave law enforcement officers authorization to enter the apartment and indicated they could gain entrance through a bedroom window that was either unlocked or open.
The officers boosted Duryee through the window of Apt. 5 instead of Apt. 4. Haun was asleep on the couch with his back to Duryee.
The complaint filed by Haun and his attorney said “Plaintiff Haun was startled, awakened and frightened by the presence of the deputy, and in the darkened room, he had no opportunity to recognize the deputy in the dim light and in his startled state.”
Haun said he was tackled by Duryee, taken to the floor in a body slam action and handcuffed.
According to the officers’ attorneys in their preliminary pretrial statement, the officers shouted into the open window. When Duryee entered the apartment, he identified himself as an officer of the law. Haun began to yell, curse and resist arrest.
Haun said, “You’re lucky I don’t have a gun. You would have had a ... bullet in your head.”
The officers also state that it was an understandable and reasonable mistake and that the circumstances didn’t violate Haun’s civil or Constitutional rights.
