Week of January 20, 2021

Holding unreasonable the seizure and retention for twelve days of plaintiff’s cell phone and camera near police station where he was photographing police vehicles and people.

Plaintiff was held without reasonable suspicion for some minutes until a drug dog arrived and allegedly alerted, whereupon plaintiff’s vehicle was searched and police found pills; plaintiff was prosecuted and convicted, then the conviction was reversed by an appellate court that found the initial detention was unlawful; Sixth Circuit holds that plaintiff’s claim for unreasonable seizure of his person, which it analogizes to false arrest and false imprisonment, accrued when he was initially released on bond and therefore this action, which he filed when he was released from his conviction, w

Officers lacked probable cause for arrest of plaintiff for loitering and reporting a false name (John Doe) near police station where he was photographing police vehicles and people, because there was no evidence he was blocking sidewalk and he did not give false name until after arrest.

Questionable decision denying plaintiff’s claim that his arrest near police station was in retaliation for his exercise of First Amendment right to photograph police vehicles and people, on ground that plaintiff’s uncooperative response to officers’ questions plus information police had regarding stolen and vandalized cars in that area and previous murder of two officers by person with history of filming the police, would give objectively reasonable person grounds to suspect plaintiff was up to more than simply recording police.