Opinion ID: 2998624
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Sornbergers’ Arrests

Text: With respect to the Sornbergers’ claims for unlawful arrest, the defendants have invoked the defense of qualified immunity. We shall first set forth the legal framework and then address each arrest. Government officials performing discretionary functions enjoy qualified immunity from suit to the extent that their conduct “could reasonably have been thought consistent with the rights they are alleged to have violated.” Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 638-39 (1987); Leaf v. Shelnutt, 400 F.3d 1070, 1079 (7th Cir. 2005). Because qualified immunity protects the defendant not only from liability but also from the burdens of standing trial, courts should determine early in the proceedings whether qualified No. 04-3614 9 immunity exists. See Saucier v. Katz, 533 U.S. 194, 201 (2001). To determine whether defendants are entitled to this defense, we follow a two-step analysis. We first ask whether the plaintiff has asserted the violation of a federal constitutional right. Id. at 200; Leaf, 400 F.3d at 1080. If such a violation did occur, we then determine whether the right was so clearly established at the time of the alleged violation that a reasonable officer would know that his actions were unconstitutional. Saucier, 533 U.S. at 202; Anderson, 483 U.S. at 640. The constitutional right to be free from arrest without probable cause indisputably was established at the time Scott and Teresa were arrested. See, e.g., Beck v. Ohio, 379 U.S. 89, 91 (1964) (“Whether [the defendant’s] arrest was constitutionally valid depends in turn upon whether, at the moment the arrest was made, the officers had probable cause to make it . . . .”). It does not follow, however, that any arrest made without probable cause necessarily deprives the officers of qualified immunity. The Supreme Court has recognized “that it is inevitable that law enforcement officials will in some cases reasonably but mistakenly conclude that probable cause is present, and . . . in such cases those officials—like other officials who act in ways they reasonably believe to be lawful— should not be held personally liable.” Anderson, 483 U.S. at 641. Instead, the relevant question is whether “a reasonable officer could have believed that probable cause existed” to make the arrest. Hunter v. Bryant, 502 U.S. 224, 229 (1991) (holding that officers are protected by qualified immunity where they possessed trustworthy, but ultimately incorrect evidence, that a suspect planned to assassinate the President). In this manner, the doctrine of qualified immunity “gives ample room for mistaken judgments by protecting all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the 10 No. 04-3614 law.” Id. at 229 (quoting Malley v. Briggs, 475 U.S. 335, 341, 343 (1986)) (internal quotation marks omitted).
Scott contends that his arresting officers unreasonably concluded that probable cause supported his arrest. Probable cause is a practical, common-sense determination. Maxwell v. City of Indianapolis, 998 F.2d 431, 434 (7th Cir. 1993). The police ordinarily have probable cause when “the facts and circumstances within their knowledge and of which they [have] reasonably trustworthy information [are] sufficient to warrant a prudent [person] in believing that the [suspect] had committed or was committing an offense.” Beck, 379 U.S. at 91. The question of probable cause is typically “a proper issue for a jury if there is room for a difference of opinion concerning the facts or the reasonable inferences to be drawn from them.” Maxwell, 998 F.2d at 434. The district court decided, as an initial matter, that Officers Clauge, Sheppard and Riley could be not be found liable for Scott’s arrest because Chief Pesci was the only arresting officer. As to Chief Pesci, the court concluded that probable cause in the form of eyewitness testimony, surveillance footage, and motive supported Scott’s arrest and absolved Pesci of any liability. The district court therefore awarded the defendants summary judgment, concluding that no reasonable juror could find that the officers lacked probable cause to arrest Scott. In the court’s view, the following “undisputed facts” armed the officers with probable cause for Scott’s arrest: “(1) an individual familiar with Scott positively identified him as bearing a strong resemblance to the robber; (2) pictures of Scott taken the previous evening at the Galesburg police station objectively No. 04-3614 11 resembled, to a high degree of certainty, still shots from the surveillance camera; and (3) an admitted motive—financial problems.” R.144 at 18. We respectfully disagree with the district court’s view as to whether probable cause existed as a matter of law. Arrayed against the indicators supporting probable cause are other factors that weigh heavily against a determination that Scott was the bank robber. First, Scott did not match—or even come close to matching—the physical description of the robber that was provided by the only eyewitness who saw the robber’s face. Secondly, Brent Dugin, the bank employee who knew Scott, told the police that, at certain angles of the surveillance footage, the suspect did not resemble Scott. See id. at 3. Third, the camera footage itself lacked a clarity of resolution that made it difficult to discern significant detail. The inconclusive nature of this footage, in addition to the differences between the specific description of the bank robber and the actual appearance of Scott Sornberger, undermines substantially the determination of probable cause in this instance. Notably, all of these factors were known to the officers who arrested Scott. Considering these facts, a reasonable jury certainly could find that probable cause did not exist. Accordingly, a determination of probable cause at the summary judgment stage was improper. The defendants contend that we nevertheless must affirm the district court because Scott’s arresting officers enjoyed qualified immunity. As they correctly point out, the qualified immunity issue—whether a reasonable officer could have believed that he had probable cause— is usually decided by the court before trial. Hunter, 502 U.S. at 228. Moreover, we recognize that, even if probable cause is lacking with respect to an arrest, the arresting officer is entitled to immunity so long as his belief that 12 No. 04-3614 he had probable cause was objectively reasonable. See id. at 227; Edwards v. Cabrera, 58 F.3d 290, 293 (7th Cir. 1995). However, the qualified immunity doctrine does not protect those who act unreasonably or “who knowingly violate the law.” Hunter, 502 U.S. at 228. Qualified immunity is, as the term implies, qualified. It contemplates instances in which a public official’s actions are not protected because the official knew or should have known he was violating an individual’s constitutional rights. See Butz v. Economou, 438 U.S. 478, 506-07 (1978) (“[I]t is not unfair to hold liable the official who knows or should know he is acting outside the law, and that insisting on an awareness of clearly established constitutional limits will not unduly interfere with the exercise of official judgment.”). The present record does not necessarily support a conclusion that Scott’s arresting officers decided, in an objectively reasonable fashion, that they had probable cause to arrest Scott. As we described in our analysis of probable cause, the evidence implicating Scott in the robbery was exceedingly thin. Scott bore a generic resemblance to the individual captured on grainy surveillance video and had admittedly poor finances. The bank employee who had noticed a resemblance later modified that conclusion in the presence of Chief Pesci.2 Scott’s physical appearance was inconsis 2 The parties disagree as to whether Chief Pesci actually heard the bank employee, Brent Dugan, make this later statement. According to the deposition of Dugan, after seeing the video from a different angle, which occurred within “a minute or two” of viewing the footage from the original angle, he commented that the view from the second angle did not resemble Scott. R.122, Ex.23 at 39. Chief Pesci, although never asked whether he heard Dugan’s second comment, testified to having been pres- (continued...) No. 04-3614 13 tent with the eyewitness description of the bank robber in almost every material respect. Nevertheless, federal and state prosecutors were approached for an authorization to arrest Scott. See R.136, Tab 7 at 47-48. The United States Attorney, when approached by the FBI, refused to sanction Scott’s arrest, citing the need for further investigation.3 Undeterred, Officer Clauge and Chief Pesci then consulted state’s attorney Mangieri for his opinion on whether there was probable cause to arrest Scott. The information that the 2 (...continued) ent while he and Dugan reviewed the surveillance footage “several” consecutive times. R.136, Tab 1 at 77-80. A reasonable inference from this testimony (and we must, in this procedural context, draw all inferences in favor of Scott) is that Chief Pesci heard both of Dugan’s statements. 3 FBI agent Brian Sharkey, who was assisting in the investigation of the First Bank robbery, testified at his deposition that he consulted Assistant United States Attorney Dara Lynn Kanauss regarding whether she wished to arrest Scott on federal charges. She declined to authorize Scott’s arrest. Agent Sharkey then rejoined the Galesburg officers to inform them of the federal prosecutor’s decision. This is how he described the ensuing conversation: Basically, I told them that I told—that I had told Dara Lynn that I felt that there were a few leads that I wanted to track down further before we did any—before we filed any charges. She agreed. She thought that we should—we didn’t at that point, I didn’t feel that this guy was a risk of flight or that he was going to leave the area, speaking of Mr. Sornberger. And so we thought that we had time to maybe track down a few leads, so we were going to—she said that she was in agreement with me to do that. R.136, Tab 6 at 55. 14 No. 04-3614 officers presented to Mangieri, however, as far as the record reveals, appears to have been incomplete and one-sided. Officer Clauge told Mangieri that Scott was a suspect “based upon a generalized description of [the] bank robber,” that Scott had poor finances, and that one bank employee had remarked that Scott resembled the perpetrator caught on tape. R.122, Ex.29 at 32-33. Mangieri was also informed of the Sornbergers’ alibi, and that a neighbor had seen an individual running behind the Sornbergers’ home near the time that the robbery was committed. Mangieri was then shown still-frame photographs from the surveillance video to compare with photos taken of Scott. Officer Clauge, however, apparently did not reveal the additional facts that undermined the likelihood that Scott was the perpetrator. From the record before us, it appears that Mangieri was not told that the one actual eyewitness to the crime gave a description that did not match Scott’s physical appearance. He apparently was not told that the bank employee who originally had opined that Scott resembled the perpetrator on the tape later modified that opinion. He was not shown the actual tape. In short, the record is susceptible to the reading that, having heard what the officers wanted him to hear—and no more—Mangieri opined that probable cause existed for Scott’s arrest.4 4 In describing the set of information that the officers presented to him, state’s attorney Mangieri gave the following account: The information that I had is that they had developed an investigatory lead based upon a generalized description of this bank robber, the viewing of the surveillance tape, one of the bank employees says, [“]It looks like Scott Sornberger,[”] and then an initial interview of Scott Sornberger and where he was during the time in question, and some additional (continued...) No. 04-3614 15 This record cannot establish that Officer Clauge and Chief Pesci simply made a good-faith mistake as to the existence of probable cause. We have held that, when an officer presents his case in good-faith to a prosecutor and seeks that official’s advice about the existence of probable cause, his subsequent action, based on the prosecutor’s advice that probable cause exists, is powerful evidence that the officer’s reliance was in good faith and deserving of qualified immunity. See Kijonka v. Seitzinger, 363 F.3d 645, 648 (7th Cir. 2004). Here, however, the record, as it comes to us, hardly establishes such a good-faith seeking of legal advice. Rather, the record is susceptible to the view that the officers themselves realized the weakness of their case, and therefore manipulated the available evidence to mislead the state prosecutor into authorizing Scott’s arrest.5 This conduct, as alleged, creates serious factual issues as to whether the officers reasonably relied on the prosecutor’s advice. On this 4 (...continued) information from—that was called in from citizens of Knoxville that law enforcement had received. R.136, Tab 5 at 32-33. 5 These circumstances are similar in principle to our cases that deny qualified immunity to officers who deliberately misrepresent or omit facts in a warrant affidavit. In those cases, officers will be held to have knowingly violated a plaintiff’s fourth amendment rights if those officers, in the course of obtaining a warrant, “had obvious reasons to doubt the accuracy of the information [they] reported, or failed to inform the judicial officer of facts they knew would negate probable cause.” Beauchamp v. City of Noblesville, 320 F.3d 733, 743 (7th Cir. 2003); Neiman v. Keane, 232 F.3d 577, 580 (7th Cir. 2000); cf. Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. 154, 155-56 (1978). 16 No. 04-3614 record, neither Chief Pesci nor Officer Clauge can be entitled to qualified immunity.6 “A police officer may not close her or his eyes to facts that would help clarify the circumstances of an arrest.” BeVier v. Hucal, 806 F.2d 123, 128 (7th Cir. 1986). As we have held, “[r]easonable avenues of investigation must be pursued” especially when, as here, it is unclear who committed the crime. Id. In the present case, the officers had obtained a warrant for the search of the Sornbergers’ parents’ computer, which would have allowed the investigators to confirm the couple’s alibi. Rather than waiting to obtain this critical information, the officers arrested Scott while the search of his parents’ home was taking place. On this record, given that the lynchpin of a probable cause determination was on the verge of being obtained, the officers’ arrest of Scott before reviewing the results of the computer search appears to have been unreasonably premature.
Teresa’s arrest presents a somewhat different situation. The parties agree that no probable cause existed to arrest Teresa until after she confessed to her involvement in the 6 Officers Sheppard and Riley, by contrast, may not be found liable for Scott’s arrest. There is nothing in the record to suggest that either of these officers were present at the meeting with state’s attorney Mangieri. Nor were the officers involved in the actual arrest of Scott. They therefore lacked both the knowledge of a false arrest and the opportunity to intervene. See Yang v. Hardin, 37 F.3d 282, 285 (7th Cir. 1994). Accordingly, we must affirm the district court’s determination that neither of these officers could be held liable for Scott’s arrest. No. 04-3614 17 bank robbery. Instead, the parties dispute whether Teresa actually was arrested before she confessed. Teresa contends that, when Officers Sheppard and Riley detained her at Scott’s parents’ home and subsequently transported her to the Galesburg police station, she was arrested without probable cause in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The defendants take the view that Teresa was not arrested prior to her confession, and, therefore, probable cause was not required. The district court agreed with the officers, rejecting Teresa’s claim that her arrest occurred when she was transported from Scott’s parents’ home to the Galesburg police station. The court concluded that “Teresa was not ‘seized’ within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment at any time at issue until she confessed, at which time probable cause existed” to arrest her. R.144 at 27. The court also determined that Teresa voluntarily consented to accompany Officers Sheppard and Riley to Galesburg. Alternatively, the court held that Officers Sheppard and Riley would be protected by qualified immunity because a reasonable officer in their position would not have been on notice that his conduct violated clearly established law. The court also held that neither Officer Clauge nor Chief Pesci could be liable for Teresa’s arrest. The two officers had no role in Teresa’s transportation to the Galesburg police station. According to the court, they became involved in Teresa’s detention only after she had confessed, at which point probable cause supported a lawful arrest.
An arrest occurs when “a reasonable person in the suspect’s position would have understood the situation to 18 No. 04-3614 constitute a restraint on freedom of movement of the degree which the law associates with formal arrest.” United States v. Ienco, 182 F.3d 517, 523 (7th Cir. 1999) (internal quotation marks omitted). As the Supreme Court has explained: There is no doubt that at some point in the investigative process, police procedures can qualitatively and quantitatively be so intrusive with respect to a suspect’s freedom of movement and privacy interests as to trigger the full protection of the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. And our view continues to be that the line is crossed when the police, without probable cause or a warrant, forcibly remove a person from his home or other place in which he is entitled to be and transport him to the police station, where he is detained, although briefly, for investigative purposes. We adhere to the view that such seizures, at least where not under judicial supervision, are sufficiently like arrests to invoke the traditional rule that arrests may constitutionally be made only on probable cause. Hayes v. Florida, 470 U.S. 811, 815-16 (1985) (citations omitted). Here, a key factual dispute exists as to whether Officer Sheppard told Teresa that she “needed” to accompany him to the Galesburg police station or whether she went voluntarily. We do not believe that the district court should have resolved this factual issue in favor of Officer Sheppard. Although Teresa responded “Yeah” when asked at a deposition whether she voluntarily left with the officers, Officer Sheppard also admitted that he may have told Teresa that she “needed” to accompany him. Appellants’ Br. at 40. Resolving inferences in favor of Teresa, as is required at this stage, a reasonable juror could indeed find that a No. 04-3614 19 person in Teresa’s position would believe, based on Officer Sheppard’s need-to-go statement, that she was under arrest.7 See Gardenhire v. Schubert, 205 F.3d 303, 314 (6th Cir. 2000) (“A police officer’s statement that ‘you need to go’ somewhere carries substantial authoritative weight. We think very few people could hear such a directive from a police officer and still think they were free to act otherwise. Once the police removed the [defendants] from their home to the police station, the encounter took on an arrest-like nature.”) (citing Hayes, 470 U.S. at 816).8 Apart from Teresa’s alleged willingness to accompany the officers, the district court based its finding that no arrest occurred primarily on the lack of any threat of force by the officers. However, physical force is not the hallmark of an arrest. See Dunaway v. New York, 442 U.S. 200, 212 (1979). The pertinent facts in Dunaway that led to a finding of arrest were “that (1) the defendant was taken from a private dwelling; (2) he was transported unwillingly to the police station; and (3) he was subjected to custodial interrogation resulting in a confession.” United States v. Sharpe, 470 U.S. 675, 684 n.4 (1985) (discussing Dunaway, 442 U.S. at 212). Resolving inferences in favor of Teresa, we conclude that the circumstances of her arrest implicate all three Dunaway factors. 7 Ascertaining the reasonableness of the suspect’s belief that she is under arrest is typically a question of fact for the jury. See Posr v. Doherty, 944 F.2d 91, 99 (2d Cir. 1991). 8 The existence of a triable issue with respect to whether Officers Sheppard and Riley requested or demanded that Teresa accompany him also precludes summary judgment on the district court’s alternative holding that Teresa consented to her seizure. 20 No. 04-3614 The district court also relied on Teresa’s deposition testimony that “reveals that she was never accused of a crime, nor considered a suspect in the robbery.” R.144 at 36. This characterization ignores, however, Teresa’s deposition statement that Officer Sheppard told her she was suspected of a crime prior to her confession. Id. Second, the district court’s conclusion relied on inferences improperly drawn from the fact that Sheppard’s questions to Teresa focused on Scott’s involvement in the robbery. According to the district court, “Sheppard and Riley’s questioning indicated their belief that [Teresa] had some knowledge about the robbery because they believed that Scott was the perpetrator, but that there is no indication that either Sheppard or Riley suspected Teresa of participation.” Id. This conclusion resolved facts in the defendants’ favor that easily could produce opposite inferences in light of Teresa’s testimony that Officer Sheppard (1) had questioned her about her whereabouts during the robbery, and (2) had informed her that witnesses placed her around the bank. Both factors would permit a reasonable person to conclude that she was suspected of a crime. Finally, the district court concluded that Teresa did not become a suspect until she verbally confessed. Yet, at the hearing on the motion to suppress her confession, the officers claimed that Teresa received her Miranda warnings before verbally confessing. The administration of Miranda warnings gave clear indication to Teresa that she was considered a suspect and was likely under arrest before probable cause was established. See United States v. Obasa, 15 F.3d 603, 608 (6th Cir. 1994) (holding that “[a]lthough giving Miranda warnings to a detainee may not automatically convert a Terry stop into an arrest, it is evidence that the nature of the detention has grown more serious”). The officers cannot claim, on one hand, that No. 04-3614 21 Teresa’s confession was not tainted by a lack of Miranda warnings and then argue, on the other, that those same Miranda warnings are not evidence that Teresa was considered a suspect. The contradiction creates a triable issue that prevents summary judgment. We must conclude, therefore, that genuine issues of fact preclude summary judgment on the issue of whether Teresa was under arrest before confessing. There remains a dispute as to: (1) whether Sheppard told Teresa she “needed” to accompany the officers; and (2) whether the officers read Teresa her Miranda rights before she confessed. Assuming, as we must in the procedural context in which this case comes to us, that Teresa’s version of the events is accurate, it cannot be maintained that a person, after being told she must accompany officers to a police station, then having her Miranda rights read to her, would “have thought [she] was sitting in the interview room as a matter of choice, free to change [her] mind and go home to bed.” Kaupp v. Texas, 538 U.S. 626, 632 (2003). Those same triable issues also preclude a determination that Officers Sheppard and Riley are entitled to qualified immunity as a matter of law. See White v. City of Markham, 310 F.3d 989, 993 (7th Cir. 2002) (“The threshold inquiry in a qualified immunity analysis is whether the plaintiff’s allegations, if true, establish a constitutional violation.”). Viewing the disputed facts in a light most favorable to Teresa, a reasonable officer would not have believed that Teresa’s detention and interrogation were consensual and that their actions were within the bounds of the Fourth Amendment. Accordingly, the district court erred in concluding that Officers Sheppard and Riley were entitled to qualified immunity. 22 No. 04-3614
Neither Chief Pesci nor Officer Clauge were directly involved in Teresa’s transportation to the Galesburg police station. For liability to attach to an officer’s failure to intervene, that officer must have (1) had reason to know that a citizen was unjustifiably arrested, and (2) had a realistic opportunity to intervene to prevent that harm from occurring. Yang v. Hardin, 37 F.3d 282, 285 (7th Cir. 1994). Teresa’s brief admits that “Clauge, who was Sheppard and Riley’s supervisor, emphasized to them that they should request that Ms. Sornberger come to the police station voluntarily and that they should take her from the house only if she agreed.” Appellants’ Br. at 12. Clauge’s instruction cannot be read as authorizing an arrest. He therefore had no reason to know that Teresa would ever be arrested without probable cause. On this record, Chief Pesci had even less involvement in Teresa’s arrest and virtually no opportunity to intervene. He had remained outside of Scott’s parents’ home while the search for the computer was being executed. Chief Pesci’s only interaction with Teresa came once Teresa had given her oral confession at the station house, when, as far as Pesci could tell, she was under lawful arrest. The district court therefore properly held that, on the record before it, Chief Pesci and Officer Clauge could not be found liable for Teresa’s false arrest.