Opinion ID: 292407
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: seay's arrest — probable cause?

Text: 13 As bases for the contention that the fingerprints taken at the Mobile police station should not have been admitted into evidence in his federal trial for counterfeiting, Seay urged: (1) that the arrest for violating the Mobile vagrancy ordinance was unfounded, since he and McGee in fact were properly dressed and had money and were therefore not vagrants; (2) that the arrests were illegal since they concededly were only used as a device to hold these men until federal agents could file counterfeiting charges. Thus Seay asserts, the fingerprinting violated his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination and constituted an unreasonable search and seizure proscribed by the Fourth Amendment. 4 14 The record before us discloses that the only fingerprints used for comparison with the latent image taken from the counterfeit bill were those taken on the occasion of Seay's arrest for vagrancy. 5 It therefore becomes critical to determine whether this arrest complied with federal constitutional standards, because if the State arrest was illegal, its sequel — fingerprints — would be barred from use in a federal trial. Davis v. Mississippi, 394 U.S. 721, 89 S.Ct. 1394, 22 L.Ed.2d 676 (1969). 15 No warrant was issued by the judicial authorities of Mobile for the vagrancy arrest of either defendant. Whether a warrantless arrest is constitutionally valid depends upon whether, at the moment the arrest was made, the officers had probable cause to make it. Beck v. Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 85 S.Ct. 223, 13 L.Ed.2d 142 (1964); Kiel v. United States, 406 F.2d 1323 (5th Cir. 1969). 16 A determination of whether probable cause existed for making an arrest does not depend upon whether the defendants were eventually convicted, nor whether they were convicted on the same charge on which they were arrested, but whether the police had probable cause at the time to believe that an offense had been committed. Klingler v. United States, 409 F.2d 299 (8th Cir. 1969), cert. den. 396 U.S. 859, 90 S.Ct. 127, 24 L.Ed.2d 110 (1969). This requires the analyzing court to deal with probabilities. Such probabilities are not technical, but factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, would act. Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 79 S.Ct. 329, 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959). In applying the standard of probable cause, we determine whether the arresting officers possess knowledge of facts and circumstances gained from reasonably trustworthy sources of information sufficient to justify a man of reasonable caution and prudence in believing that an arrested person has committed or is committing an offense. Knowledge of evidence necessary to establish guilt is not required. Henry v. United States, 361 U.S. 98, 80 S.Ct. 168, 4 L.Ed.2d 134 (1959); Miller v. United States, 356 F.2d 63, 66, cert. denied 384 U.S. 912, 86 S.Ct. 1357, 16 L.Ed.2d 365 (1966); United States v. Trabucco, 424 F.2d 1311 (5th Cir. 1970). 17 In applying these principles to the case sub judice, we find that Seay and McGee were arrested for vagrancy under a section of the Mobile City Code which in part provided: 18 The following described persons are vagrants: 19