Opinion ID: 793418
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment Claim Against Unreasonable Seizure

Text: 18 In Oliver v. Woods, 209 F.3d 1179, 1186 (10th Cir.2000), we stated [t]he Supreme Court has identified three types of police/citizen encounters: consensual encounters, investigative stops, and arrests. 5 Consensual encounters are not seizures within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, and need not be supported by suspicion of criminal wrongdoing. Id. 19 An investigative detention is a seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, but unlike an arrest, it need not be supported by probable cause. Id. The police can stop and briefly detain a person for investigative purposes if the officer has a reasonable suspicion supported by articulable facts that criminal activity may be afoot, even if the officer lacks probable cause. Id. For an officer to have reasonable suspicion to seize an individual the officer must have a particularized and objective basis for suspecting the particular person stopped of criminal activity. Id. 20 An arrest occurs when an officer has probable cause to believe that a person committed a crime. Romero v. Fay, 45 F.3d 1472, 1476 (10th Cir.1995). An arrest is distinguished by the involuntary, highly intrusive nature of the encounter. Oliver, 209 F.3d at 1186. [T]he use of firearms, handcuffs, and other forceful techniques generally exceed the scope of an investigative detention and enter the realm of an arrest. See United States v. Melendez-Garcia, 28 F.3d 1046, 1052 (10th Cir.1994). Probable cause to arrest exists only when the facts and circumstances within the officers' knowledge, and of which they have reasonably trustworthy information, are sufficient in themselves to warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief that an offense has been or is being committed. United States v. Valenzuela, 365 F.3d 892, 896 (10th Cir.2004)(internal quotation marks omitted).
21 Viewing the record in the light most favorable to Plaintiff Rick Cortez, we have no difficulty in finding that he has presented facts or allegations showing the Defendants violated a constitutional right, namely the Fourth Amendment right to be free of unreasonable seizure. Olsen, 312 F.3d at 1312. It appears that the officers: (1) grabbed Rick Cortez and pulled him from the doorway of his home; (2) handcuffed him; (3) advised him of his Miranda rights; (4) placed him in the back seat of the locked squad car; and (5) questioned him while he was in the back seat of the locked squad car. We also note that the encounter took place after midnight. 6 Based on the facts above, a jury could find that Rick Cortez was arrested without probable cause. 7 22 Under the second sequential question 8 , we also find the right was clearly established when the alleged violation occurred. The law was and is unambiguous: a government official must have probable cause to arrest an individual. Furthermore, it was established law that the probable cause standard of the Fourth Amendment requires officers to reasonably interview witnesses readily available at the scene, investigate basic evidence, or otherwise inquire if a crime has been committed at all before invoking the power of warrantless arrest and detention. Romero, 45 F.3d at 1476-77 (footnote omitted). In the present case, witnesses were readily available for interviews, physical evidence was available, and a medical diagnosis was forthcoming. Defendants, however, did not: (1)interview the mother, the nurse, or the doctor; (2) inspect the youngster's clothing for possible signs of sexual assault; or (3) wait for a preliminary report from the doctor. In other words, Defendants conducted no investigation. Instead, the Defendants relied on the flimsiest of information. 23 Defendants rely upon the statement of the two-year-old child which was relayed to them by a nurse, who heard it from the girl's mother. The fact that hearsay evidence would not be admissible at trial to prove guilt does not make it unusable as a source of probable cause for a warrantless arrest. See United States v. Swingler, 758 F.2d 477, 487 (10th Cir. 1985). Defendants have cited the excited utterance exception to the hearsay rule contained in Rule 803(2) F.R.Evid. Arguably, the statement might also fall within the medical diagnosis exception of Rule 803(4) F.R.Evid., but the Court sees no need to engage in such analysis. The statement is not being presented for the truth of the matter asserted therein; the issue is whether the officers were justified in relying upon it. 24 In Easton v. City of Boulder, 776 F.2d 1441 (10th Cir.1985), we declined to discount the testimony of a three-year-old and a five-year-old regarding child abuse based solely on their age. Id. at 1449. We specifically found, however, that the five-year-old's statement had corroborated all the facts given by [the three-year-old]. . . with respect to the assault [the five-year-old] witnessed. Id. at 1443. Here, no such corroboration was present. Additionally in Easton, we found that details in both children's statements regarding the plaintiff's residence and the site of the assault were independently corroborated by police investigation. Id. at 1450. Again, no such corroboration was present. Therefore, we find that the Plaintiff has demonstrated a claim that his constitutional right to be free from unreasonable seizures has been violated. 25 This conclusion does not, however, end our analysis. Even law enforcement officials who reasonably but mistakenly conclude that probable cause is present are entitled to immunity. Romero v. Fay, 45 F.3d 1472, 1476 (10th Cir.1995) 9 . Therefore, when a warrantless arrest or a seizure is the subject of a § 1983 action, the defendant is entitled to qualified immunity if a reasonable officer could have believed that probable cause existed to arrest or detain the plaintiff. 26 This principle may appear to be in some tension with the equally established principle that it is a jury question in a civil rights suit whether an officer had probable cause to arrest. DeLoach v. Bevers, 922 F.2d 618, 622 (10th Cir.1990), cert. denied, 502 U.S. 814, 112 S.Ct. 65, 116 L.Ed.2d 41 (1991). The tension is resolved in this case by the essential lack of dispute over the historical, predicate facts. The parties agree on the what happened questions. 10 In such a circumstance, for qualified immunity purposes there is no such thing as a genuine issue of fact as to whether an officer should have known that his conduct violated constitutional rights. See Pace v. City of Des Moines, 201 F.3d 1050, 1056 (8th Cir.2000). 11 We find the officers did not have arguable probable cause to arrest Rick Cortez because, as mentioned above, the information relied on to conduct the seizure was not reasonably trustworthy information sufficient on its own to justify the seizure.
27 We now turn to the treatment of Tina Cortez. Taking the Plaintiffs' allegations as true, and viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the Plaintiffs, it appears that Tina Cortez (1) was ordered out of her house by the officers; (2) returned to her bedroom (though it is unclear whether she did so after exiting the house in response to the officers' orders, or without exiting the house); (3) was physically separated from her telephone by an officer illuminating the bedroom with a flashlight; (4) was taken by the arm by the officer and escorted from her home; (5) was placed in the back seat of a locked squad car; and (6) was questioned by an officer while in the back seat of the locked squad car. While in the back seat of the locked squad car, Tina Cortez was allowed to use an officer's cell phone. Again we note that all this occurred after midnight. 28 The seizure of Tina Cortez was less intrusive than that of Rick Cortez to be sure. She was not advised of her Miranda rights, was not handcuffed, was allowed to use the officer's cell phone, generally seemed to be subjected to less force than Rick Cortez, and did not seem to be the object of the officers' primary suspicions. Again, whether the seizure of Tina Cortez should be characterized as an arrest or an investigative detention is a question for the jury. Although we make no determination as to the characterization of Tina Cortez's detention, we presently assume for the sake of argument that she was subjected to an investigative detention. Cf. Muehler v. Mena, 544 U.S. 93, 125 S.Ct. 1465, 1470-71, 161 L.Ed.2d 299 (2005)(making clear that detaining individuals under intrusive conditions does not automatically convert the detention to an arrest). 29 Therefore, assuming the seizure of Tina Cortez was an investigative detention, we again examine the officers' factual basis. As previously stated, an investigative detention must be based upon reasonable suspicion. The court views the totality of the circumstances to see whether the detaining officer had a particularized and objective basis for suspecting legal wrongdoing. United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 273, 122 S.Ct. 744, 151 L.Ed.2d 740 (2002). Just like her husband's seizure and detention, the seizure and detention of Tina Cortez was based on the allegations of the two-year-old girl. The alleged statement of the two-year-old child, however, alleged no wrongdoing as to Tina Cortez whatsoever. Furthermore, the statement did not indicate a likelihood that she would destroy material evidence. See Michigan v. Summers, 452 U.S. 692, 101 S.Ct. 2587, 69 L.Ed.2d 340 (1981). Therefore, we find that Tina Cortez has demonstrated that a clearly established constitutional right has been violated. Consequently, the Defendants are not entitled to qualified immunity as to her wrongful seizure claim, as the existence of neither reasonable suspicion nor arguable reasonable suspicion has been shown. 12