Judge: City not liable for ex-cop’s sex crime

Posted 10/27/16

Fifth Judicial District Court Judge Steven Cranfill concluded that state law protects the city from a lawsuit brought by a woman who was assaulted by then-Powell Police Officer Kirk Chapman.

Wyoming law says a government is only liable for an …

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Judge: City not liable for ex-cop’s sex crime

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The City of Powell and its police department cannot be held liable for a sexual assault committed by one of its officers in 2011, a judge ruled last week.

Fifth Judicial District Court Judge Steven Cranfill concluded that state law protects the city from a lawsuit brought by a woman who was assaulted by then-Powell Police Officer Kirk Chapman.

Wyoming law says a government is only liable for an officer’s misconduct if their actions were “within the scope of their duties” — and “it is clear a sexual assault cannot be considered to be within the scope of the duties of the defendant Chapman,” Cranfill wrote in a Friday order.

Barring an appeal, the judge’s ruling could bring an end to the case.

The Tribune was unable to immediately reach Brian Hanify, a Cheyenne attorney who represents the woman. Tom Thompson, a Rawlins attorney who has represented the city, declined to comment.

Chapman had subjected the woman to unwanted sexual touching and rubbing early one morning in September 2011. She later told investigators from the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation she had been intimidated by Chapman, who was on duty at the time.

Chapman had given the woman a ride home from a Powell bar that night, court records say, then returned under the auspices of checking on her. Hanify argued that the officer was conducting a welfare check — and therefore was acting within the scope of his duties — but Cranfill rejected that argument.

“The welfare check may very well have been in the scope of his duties, but that ended when the assault began,” the judge wrote. “That act of defendant Chapman was clearly not a duty, and not intended to be covered by the act.”

Chapman initially denied the allegations — saying he’d never gone back to the woman’s house that night — but ultimately pleaded guilty to a felony count of third-degree sexual assault.

Powell Police Chief Roy Eckerdt has said the city suspended Chapman as soon as it learned of the allegations and that the officer never returned to duty. His employment with the department ended in November 2011.

In early 2014 — while the criminal case in Park County was still pending — another woman came forward in Appleton, Wisconsin, to report that Chapman had sexually assaulted her in 2003, when she was 13 years old. Chapman is serving a three-and-a-half to seven-year prison sentence for the crimes in the two states.

The former Powell woman victimized by Chapman filed her civil suit against the city, police and Chapman in September 2014. She had agreed to dismiss some of her claims against Chapman earlier this year, in exchange for him agreeing to turn over his personnel file.

The woman sought as much as $250,000, the maximum claim allowed against Wyoming governments.

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