Opinion ID: 1190445
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Alleged illegal arrest or detention

Text: Defendant was in the Santa Rita jail when police needed to interrogate him. Sergeant Medsker preferred to conduct the questioning at police headquarters because he had more information about the case there and thought it might be necessary to conduct a polygraph examination of defendant. On September 10, Sergeant Medsker obtained a removal order from the Alameda County Superior Court that directed defendant's transfer from Santa Rita to police headquarters. Defendant was transported the next day and was interrogated at headquarters. (1) Defendant contends his transfer from Santa Rita was equivalent to an arrest without probable cause. (Sergeant Medsker testified at the suppression hearing that, as of September 10, he did not believe he had sufficient evidence to arrest defendant.) Defendant does not contend the interrogation would have constituted an arrest or detention if it had been conducted at the Santa Rita jail. Defendant cites no authority, and we are aware of none, for his conclusion that his transfer from one facility to another was an arrest or detention that required probable cause. Defendant relies on People v. Boyer (1989) 48 Cal.3d 247, 267-268 [256 Cal. Rptr. 96, 768 P.2d 610], for the proposition that he was under arrest at the time of the transfer because a reasonable person in his position would not have felt free to leave. Boyer is inapposite. Of course, defendant was not free to leave. He was already properly in custody for an unrelated offense. That is why his argument must fail. The transfer from one jail to another did not effect a seizure of defendant for the obvious reason that he was already lawfully in custody. Likewise, An arrest is taking a person into custody, in a case and in the manner authorized by law. (Pen. Code, § 834.) Because defendant already was lawfully in custody, he was not taken into custody when he was transferred, and the transfer was not an arrest.