Opinion ID: 764845
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Issuance of Bench Warrant for Plaintiff's Arrest

Text: 35 Plaintiff claims that because Mayor Migliorini was not an impartial decision maker, plaintiff was also deprived of his right under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments against issuance of an arrest warrant by a person who is not neutral and detached from law enforcement. See Amended Complaint, Count III, at 19, J.A. 49. It is well-settled that the signing and issuance of an arrest warrant are to be undertaken only by a neutral and detached judicial officer. Coolidge v. New Hampshire, 403 U.S. 443, 449, 91 S.Ct. 2022, 29 L.Ed.2d 564 (1971) (state attorney general personally in charge of investigating a widely publicized murder, and who later acted as chief prosecutor at trial, ought not to have issued a search warrant in the case); Johnson v. United States, 333 U.S. 10, 14, 68 S.Ct. 367, 92 L.Ed. 436 (1948)(inferences [of probable cause must] be drawn by a neutral and detached magistrate instead of being judged by the officer engaged in the often competitive enterprise of ferreting out crime.); United States v. Weaver, 99 F.3d 1372, 1376 (6th Cir.1996)(the court must ... insist that the magistrate perform his 'neutral and detached' function and not serve merely as a rubber stamp for police.' ). See also Shadwick v. City of Tampa, 407 U.S. 345, 350-51, 92 S.Ct. 2119, 32 L.Ed.2d 783 (1972)(municipal court clerks neutral and detached, and therefore able to issue warrants for persons charged with breach of municipal ordinances because removed from prosecutor and police and supervised by municipal court judges); United States v. Bowers, 828 F.2d 1169, 1174-75 (6th Cir.1987) (district court judge's judicial supervision of city water and sewerage department pursuant to federal court order did not render him incapable of acting as a neutral and detached judicial officer in reviewing wiretap application pertaining to criminal investigation of water and sewerage department). 36 Defendants' contention that the Mayor could validly issue a bench warrant for plaintiff's arrest because the Mayor is only a law enforcement officer when acting in that capacity, and that there is no evidence Mayor Migliorini acted in his capacity as chief conservator of the peace when presiding over Mayor's Court, simply cannot be reconciled with our holding in Part A, supra, that a deprivation of due process occurred when Mayor Migliorini presided over plaintiff's trial. In evaluating plaintiff's challenge to issuance of the bench warrant, the district court distinguished the process of making credibility determinations in a trial on a substantive offense from the process of determining whether a party is in contempt: [t]here does not appear to be any reason to suggest that the mayor could not be 'neutral and detached' in determining whether [plaintiff] failed to appear in court. Mem. Op. and Order of June 19, 1997, at 13, J.A. 145 (citing United States v. Evans, 574 F.2d 352, 355 (6th Cir.1978)). We have held today, however, that the deprivation of due process occurred because the powers with which he was vested necessarily put him in two practically and seriously inconsistent positions. By virtue of the breadth of his executive powers and administrative responsibilities, Mayor Migliorini lacked authority to preside over the Mayor's Court. Therefore we are also compelled to find that plaintiff was deprived of due process when the Mayor issued a bench warrant for plaintiff's arrest on account of his failure to appear in Mayor's Court. Accordingly, we reverse the district court's dismissal of Count III of plaintiff's complaint.