Albuquerque Officials Must Face Ex-Cop’s Speech Retaliation Suit

A former Albuquerque, N.M., police officer can proceed with a suit against city officials alleging they violated his free speech rights by filing an abuse of process counterclaim in his open records suit, the Tenth Circuit said.

The city and its officials were acting “under color of state law” when they filed the counterclaim, the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit said in an unpublished opinion. The fact that the counterclaim was civil, not criminal, in nature wasn’t relevant, it said.

Jeremy Dear sued Albuquerque in state court under New Mexico’s open records act seeking access to documents ...