Officers had at least arguable probable cause to arrest Moorish Americans for refusing to leave courthouse when ordered to do so after declining to submit to security screening; 1836 U.S.-Morocco Treaty of Peace and Friendship did not clearly establish a right for Moorish Americans to enter courthouse without security screening.
Plaintiff, Gerald Wilcox, 43, was arrested in his home in a quiet Detroit suburb by two Detroit Police Dep’t. officers looking for a Gerald Wilcox in his 20s who robbed a Family Dollar store in Detroit the previous day. The warrantless arrest, without consent or exigent circumstances, occurred in front of Wilcox’s wife and teenge son. Wilcox spent 15 days in the county jail before the Officer-in-Charge admitted that he learned the night of the arrest that the plaintiff was the wrong person. Charges were dismissed 6 weeks after the arrest when an eyewitness told the prosecutor that Mr.
Where protestors were boxed into a “kettle,” beaten, pepper sprayed, and arrested in demonstration that was generally peaceful and not all arrested persons were part of a unit violating the law, officers were not entitled to qualified immunity on false arrest claim; supervisors who did not order or observe or intent excessive force were entitled to qualified immunity on excessive force claim; officers entitled to qualified immunity on conspiracy claim due to unsettled status of incorporate conspiracy doctrine in § 1983 cases.
Federal Rules of Evidence do not apply to applications for warrants; “best evidence” rule did not require officer to attach photo he described; probable cause may rest upon hearsay so long as there is a substantial basis for crediting it.
St.
Plaintiff arrested for aggravated assault arising from shooting; assertion that plaintiff acted in self-defense did not vitiate officers’ probable cause for arrest; in any event lack of probable cause was not clearly established; court affirms award of fees to defendants because plaintiff’s admission to officers that he shot victim and was identified by bystanders clearly demonstrated probable cause.
Family members who witnesses stabbing of family member who were detained against their will at police station for three hours while victim died in hospital were subject to false arrest in violation of the 4th amendment, not an investigatory detention; no qualified immunity.
Factual disputes precluded summary judgment on qualified immunity: “we hold that, if a police officer finds an individual’s statements regarding his lack of intent to commit a crime to be credible in light of the totality of the circumstances, or if (at the very least) such exculpatory statements could materially impact the probable cause determination by a neutral magistrate judge, that officer cannot then use the incriminating portions of those statements as the foundation for probable cause in an arrest warrant affidavit for that individual, while either knowingly or recklessly concealin
Officers did not turn Terry stop into arrest by pointing their guns at subjects and handcuffing them; officers were investigating a disturbance involving a handgun and although they did not observe subjects with a gun, they lacked personal knowledge to rule them out as suspects, nor did they point guns at them for an unreasonably long time; with respect to a later arrest of one of the subjects, court concludes facts were disputed, but if plaintiff was walking away from officers when he shouted an obscenity, officer would not be entitled to qualified immunity as a matter of law.
Officers filed an affidavit containing false and misleading material facts for the arrest of plaintiff for capital murder; fact that prosecuting attorney approved affidavit would not entitle them to qualified immunity; Messerschmidt v. Millender, 565 U.S. 535 (2012) distinguished on ground that Messerschmidt did not involve a claim of a misleading affidavit.