Source: http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/543/146.html
Timestamp: 2017-02-24 06:52:21
Document Index: 230766055

Matched Legal Cases: ['§9', '§46', '§46', '§1979', '§1983', '§9', '§9', '§9']

DEVENPECK v. ALFORD [03-710] | FindLaw
DEVENPECK v. ALFORD [03-710]
DEVENPECK et al. v. ALFORD, (2004)
Argued: November 8, 2004 Decided: December 13, 2004
Held: 1. A warrantless arrest by a law officer is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment if, given the facts known to the officer, there is probable cause to believe that a crime has been or is being committed. The Ninth Circuit's additional limitation--that the offense establishing probable cause must be "closely related" to, and based on the same conduct as, the offense the arresting officer identifies at the time of arrest--is inconsistent with this Court's precedent, which holds that an arresting officer's state of mind (except for facts that he knows) is irrelevant to probable cause, see Whren v. United States, 517 U. S. 806, 812-815. The "closely related offense" rule is also condemned by its perverse consequences: it will not eliminate sham arrests but will cause officers to cease providing reasons for arrest, or to cite every class of offense for which probable cause could conceivably exist. Pp. 5-9.
2. This Court will not decide in the first instance whether petitioners lacked probable cause to arrest respondent for either obstructing or impersonating an officer because the Ninth Circuit, having found those offenses legally irrelevant, did not decide that question. Pp. 9-10.
Sergeant Devenpeck arrived on the scene a short time later. After Haner informed Devenpeck of the basis for his belief that respondent had been impersonating a police officer, id., at 110, Devenpeck approached respondent's vehicle and inquired about the wig-wag headlights, 333 F. 3d, at 975. As before, respondent said that the headlights were part of his alarm system and that he did not know how to activate them. App. 52, 138-139. Like Haner, Devenpeck was skeptical of respondent's answers. In the course of his questioning, Devenpeck noticed a tape recorder on the passenger seat of respondent's car, with the play and record buttons depressed. 333 F. 3d, at 975. He ordered Haner to remove respondent from the car, played the recorded tape, and found that respondent had been recording his conversations with the officers. Devenpeck informed respondent that he was under arrest for a violation of the Washington Privacy Act, Wash. Rev. Code §9.73.030 (1994). 333 F. 3d, at 975; App. 144-145. Respondent protested that a state court-of-appeals decision, a copy of which he claimed was in his glove compartment, permitted him to record roadside conversations with police officers. 333 F. 3d, at 975; App. 42, 67-68. Devenpeck returned to his car, reviewed the language of the Privacy Act, and attempted unsuccessfully to reach a prosecutor to confirm that the arrest was lawful. Id., at 151-154. Believing that the text of the Privacy Act confirmed that respondent's recording was unlawful,1 he directed Officer Haner to take respondent to jail. Id., at 154.
At booking, Haner charged respondent with violating the State Privacy Act, id., at 32-33, and issued a ticket to respondent for his flashing headlights under Wash. Rev. Code §46.37.280(3) (1994), App. 24-25. Under state law, respondent could be detained on the latter offense only for the period of time "reasonably necessary" to issue a citation. §46.64.015 (1994). The state trial court subsequently dismissed both charges. App. 10, 29.
Respondent filed suit against petitioners in Federal District Court. He asserted a federal cause of action under Rev. Stat. §1979, 42 U. S. C. §1983, and a state cause of action for unlawful arrest and imprisonment, both claims resting upon the allegation that petitioners arrested him without probable cause in violation of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. 333 F. 3d, at 975. The District Court denied petitioners' motion for summary judgment on grounds of qualified immunity, and the case proceeded to trial. Alford v. Washington State Police, Case No. C99-5586RJB (WD Wash., Nov. 30, 2000), App. to Pet. for Cert. 40a. The jury was instructed that, for respondent to prevail on either his federal- or state-law claim, he must demonstrate that petitioners arrested him without probable cause, App. 199-201; and that probable cause exists "if the facts and circumstances within the arresting officer's knowledge are sufficient to warrant a prudent person to conclude that the suspect has committed, is committing, or was about to commit a crime," id., at 201. The jury was also instructed that, at the time of respondent's arrest, a State Court-of-Appeals decision, State v. Flora, 68 Wash. App. 802, 845 P. 2d 1355 (1992), had clearly established that respondent's taping of petitioners was not a crime, App. 202. And the jury was directed that it must find for petitioners if a reasonable officer in the same circumstances would have believed respondent's detention was lawful. Id., at 200. Respondent did not object to any of these instructions. The jury returned a unanimous verdict in favor of petitioners. 333 F. 3d, at 975. The District Court denied respondent's motion for judgment as a matter of law or, in the alternative, a new trial, and respondent appealed. Ibid.; App. to Pet. for Cert. 25a.
A divided panel of the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed, finding "no evidence to support the jury's verdict," 333 F. 3d, at 975. The majority concluded that petitioners could not have had probable cause to arrest because they cited only the Privacy Act charge and "[t]ape recording officers conducting a traffic stop is not a crime in Washington." Id., at 976. The majority rejected petitioners' claim that probable cause existed to arrest respondent for the offenses of impersonating a law-enforcement officer, Wash. Rev. Code §9A.60.040(3) (1994), and obstructing a law-enforcement officer, §9A.76.020, because, it said, those offenses were not "closely related" to the offense invoked by Devenpeck as he took respondent into custody, 333 F. 3d, at 976-977. The majority also held that there was no evidence to support petitioners' claim of qualified immunity, since, given the Washington Court of Appeals' decision in Flora, "no objectively reasonable officer could have concluded that arresting [respondent] for taping the traffic stop was permissible," 333 F. 3d, at 979. Judge Gould dissented on the ground that it was objectively reasonable for petitioners to believe that respondent had violated the Privacy Act. See id., at 980. We granted certiorari. 541 U. S. 987 (2004).
Our cases make clear that an arresting officer's state of mind (except for the facts that he knows) is irrelevant to the existence of probable cause. See Whren v. United States, 517 U. S. 806, 812-813 (1996) (reviewing cases); Arkansas v. Sullivan, 532 U. S. 769 (2001) (per curiam). That is to say, his subjective reason for making the arrest need not be the criminal offense as to which the known facts provide probable cause. As we have repeatedly explained, " 'the fact that the officer does not have the state of mind which is hypothecated by the reasons which provide the legal justification for the officer's action does not invalidate the action taken as long as the circumstances, viewed objectively, justify that action.' " Whren, supra, at 813 (quoting Scott v. United States, 436 U. S. 128, 138 (1978)). "[T]he Fourth Amendment's concern with 'reasonableness' allows certain actions to be taken in certain circumstances, whatever the subjective intent." Whren, supra, at 814. "[E]venhanded law enforcement is best achieved by the application of objective standards of conduct, rather than standards that depend upon the subjective state of mind of the officer." Horton v. California, 496 U. S. 128, 138 (1990).
The rule that the offense establishing probable cause must be "closely related" to, and based on the same conduct as, the offense identified by the arresting officer at the time of arrest is inconsistent with this precedent.2 Such a rule makes the lawfulness of an arrest turn upon the motivation of the arresting officer--eliminating, as validating probable cause, facts that played no part in the officer's expressed subjective reason for making the arrest, and offenses that are not "closely related" to that subjective reason. See, e.g., Sheehy v. Plymouth, 191 F. 3d 15, 20 (CA1 1999); Trejo v. Perez, 693 F. 2d 482, 485-486 (CA5 1982). This means that the constitutionality of an arrest under a given set of known facts will "vary from place to place and from time to time," Whren, supra, at 815, depending on whether the arresting officer states the reason for the detention and, if so, whether he correctly identifies a general class of offense for which probable cause exists. An arrest made by a knowledgeable, veteran officer would be valid, whereas an arrest made by a rookie in precisely the same circumstances would not. We see no reason to ascribe to the Fourth Amendment such arbitrarily variable protection.
Those who support the "closely related offense" rule say that, although it is aimed at rooting out the subjective vice of arrests made for the wrong reason, it does so by objective means--that is, by reference to the arresting officer's statement of his reason. The same argument was made in Whren, supra, in defense of the proposed rule that a traffic stop can be declared invalid for malicious motivation when it is justified only by an offense which standard police practice does not make the basis for a stop. That rule, it was said, "attempt[s] to root out subjective vices through objective means," id., at 814. We rejected the argument there, and we reject it again here. Subjective intent of the arresting officer, however it is determined (and of course subjective intent is always determined by objective means), is simply no basis for invalidating an arrest. Those are lawfully arrested whom the facts known to the arresting officers give probable cause to arrest.
The facts of this case exemplify the arbitrary consequences of a "closely related offense" rule. Officer Haner's initial stop of respondent was motivated entirely by the suspicion that he was impersonating a police officer. App. 106. Before pulling respondent over, Haner indicated by radio that this was his concern; during the stop, Haner asked respondent whether he was actively employed in law enforcement and why his car had wig-wag headlights; and when Sergeant Devenpeck arrived, Haner told him why he thought respondent was a "wannabe cop," id., at 98. In addition, in the course of interrogating respondent, both officers became convinced that he was not answering their questions truthfully and, with respect to the wig-wag headlights, that he was affirmatively trying to mislead them. Only after these suspicions had developed did Devenpeck discover the taping, place respondent under arrest, and offer the Privacy Act as the reason. Because of the "closely related offense" rule, Devenpeck's actions render irrelevant both Haner's developed suspicions that respondent was impersonating a police officer and the officers' shared belief that respondent obstructed their investigation. If Haner, rather than Devenpeck, had made the arrest, on the stated basis of his suspicions; if Devenpeck had not abided the county's policy against "stacking" charges; or if either officer had made the arrest without stating the grounds; the outcome under the "closely related offense" rule might well have been different. We have consistently rejected a conception of the Fourth Amendment that would produce such haphazard results, see Whren, 517 U. S., at 815.
FOOTNOTESFootnote 1 The relevant provision of the Washington Privacy Act states:
"Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, it shall be unlawful for any individual, partnership, corporation, association, or the state of Washington, its agencies, and political subdivisions to intercept, or record any . . . [p]rivate conversation, by any device electronic or otherwise designed to record or transmit such conversation regardless how the device is powered or actuated without first obtaining the consent of all the persons engaged in the conversation." Wash. Rev. Code §9.73.030(1)(b) (1994).
Footnote 2 At least one Court of Appeals has adopted a variation of the "closely related offense" rule which looks not to the offense stated by the officer at the time of arrest, but to the offense given by the officer at booking. See Gassner v. Garland, 864 F. 2d 394, 398 (CA5 1989); but see Sheehy v. Plymouth, 191 F. 3d 15, 20 (CA1 1999) (holding that an arrest cannot be justified by an offense given at booking when the offense asserted by the officer at the time of arrest was not closely related). Most of our discussion in this opinion, and our conclusion of invalidity, applies to this variation as well.
Footnote 3 Even absent a requirement that an individual be informed of the reason for arrest when he is taken into custody, he will not be left to wonder for long. "[P]ersons arrested without a warrant must promptly be brought before a neutral magistrate for a judicial determination of probable cause." County of Riverside v. McLaughlin, 500 U. S. 44, 53 (1991).
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