Opinion ID: 3191439
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Continued Detention

Text: Once Dillard initiated Thomas’ detention for the purpose of a weapons frisk, the constitutional violation was complete. Nonetheless, Dillard highlights an event subsequent to his initiation of the detention that he argues provided reasonable suspicion Thomas was armed. After Dillard had drawn his Taser, he ordered Thomas to put his hands up, step forward and drop to his knees to permit a search for weapons; but Thomas refused to do so, multiple times, until the Escondido officer pointed her gun at him, at which point he raised his hands. Assuming without deciding that an officer’s conduct in executing an unlawful detention can prompt a suspicious reaction in the detainee that makes the continued detention lawful, but see Thomas, 863 F.2d at 630, Thomas’ refusal to comply with Dillard’s commands failed to justify the continued detention here. Although noncompliant behavior can contribute to reasonable suspicion a suspect is armed, see Burkett, 612 F.3d at 1107, here it provided no basis for believing Thomas was armed. Although Thomas refused to raise his hands and kneel, he stood still and his hands were empty and plainly visible throughout the entire six minutes he was being detained under threat of Dillard’s Taser. Again, he had no suspicious bulges suggesting he had a weapon, there had been no report he had a weapon and the crime for which he was being investigated was not likely to involve the use of 40 THOMAS V. DILLARD weapons. Thomas had been forthright with Dillard from the beginning, providing his identity and answering his questions directly. Husky was adamant that Thomas had done nothing wrong. In context, Thomas’ steadfast, passive resistance to Dillard’s insistence that he offer himself to be searched does not tip the balance in favor of reasonable suspicion to frisk. See Smith, 394 F.3d at 702 (holding there was “not . . . any basis” for suspecting a domestic violence suspect was armed – even after he had initially refused officers’ order to take his hands out of his pockets, had gone in and out of his house and had yelled expletives at officers – in part because his hands were plainly visible when the officers used force to detain him). Thomas’ refusal to raise his hands and kneel for an unlawful frisk did not make the remainder of the detention lawful. Nonetheless, because we hold it was not clearly established that Dillard’s initial demand for a frisk was unlawful, neither was it clearly established that continuing to detain a noncompliant domestic violence suspect for the purpose of executing a frisk was unlawful. Dillard is entitled to qualified immunity for that portion of the detention as well.