Opinion ID: 615987
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Moment of Seizure

Text: An individual is seized when an officer by means of physical force or show of authority, has in some way restrained [his] liberty. Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 19 n. 16, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968); see also Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 7, 105 S.Ct. 1694, 85 L.Ed.2d 1 (1985) (stating that [w]henever an officer restrains the freedom of a person to walk away, he has seized that person). If the officer acts by a show of authority, as in this case, the individual must actually submit to that authority. Brendlin v. California, 551 U.S. 249, 254, 127 S.Ct. 2400, 168 L.Ed.2d 132 (2007). In order to determine if a seizure has occurred, we will look to all of the circumstances surrounding the incident and consider whether a reasonable person would have believed that he was not free to leave. United States v. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. 544, 554, 100 S.Ct. 1870, 64 L.Ed.2d 497 (1980). A reasonable person in Beauchamp's position would not have felt free to leave when, after walking away from the police two times, an officer targeted Beauchamp by driving up to him, instructed him to stop, and then instructed him to turn around and walk toward the officer. Two features of the encounter compel this finding. First, a reasonable person in Beauchamp's position would perceive the separate interactions with Officer Dees and then Officer Fain as connected and an indication that the officers were targeting him. There certainly could be situations in which a reasonable person would not perceive police interactions as connected; perhaps if there was a longer period of time between interactions or if they occurred in different locations. In this case, however, Beauchamp encountered Officer Dees and walked away, and then two streets over and presumably only a few minutes later, given the short distance, Officer Fain drove up to Beauchamp. Even though Officer Dees did not say anything to Beauchamp, a reasonable person would not dismiss the initial encounter with Officer Dees as merely coincidental when a second officer, almost immediately thereafter, sped up his patrol car, parked by Beauchamp, and exited his car to initiate contact. Just as officers are afforded the benefit of information or directions received from other officers when we consider whether the detaining officer had reasonable suspicion, see, e.g., Dorsey v. Barber, 517 F.3d 389, 395 (6th Cir.2008), an individual's prior encounters with other officers should be taken into consideration when determining whether an encounter was coercive or consensual. Thus, the fact that Beauchamp first walked away from Officer Dees before Officer Fain located him and pulled up next to him would suggest to a reasonable person that the officers were targeting Beauchamp and therefore he would not feel free to leave. See United States v. Tyler, 512 F.3d 405, 410 (7th Cir.2008) (noting that whether the police informed the person that he was suspected of a crime or the target of an investigation is a relevant factor when determining whether a reasonable person would feel free to leave); United States v. Fusci, No. 92-2126, 1993 WL 53106, at  (10th Cir. Feb. 25, 1993) (unpublished order) (discussing how the agent's actions would tend to communicate to a reasonable person that, as the specific target of the agents' investigation, he was unable to terminate the encounter (internal quotation marks omitted)); United States v. Kerr, 817 F.2d 1384, 1387 (9th Cir.1987) ([S]everal facts suggest that [the defendant] reasonably perceived that he was the target of [the officer's] investigation and thus was not free to leave.); United States v. Saperstein, 723 F.2d 1221, 1226 (6th Cir.1983) (concluding that a reasonable person in the defendant's position would not feel free to leave when, among other factors, the DEA agent informed the defendant that he had information about the defendant's involvement in drug trafficking). In fact, Officer Fain acknowledged that Beauchamp didn't want to be there with [him]. Second, a reasonable person in Beauchamp's position would perceive that the officer's instructions that he stop and that he move around the fence required compliance and restricted his ability to walk away. By this point, Beauchamp had indicated that he did not want to speak with the police by walking away two times; a reasonable person would not have felt free to walk away a third time after an officer had given him express instructions to do otherwise. See United States v. Johnson, 620 F.3d 685, 690-91 (6th Cir.2010) (holding that a reasonable person would not feel free to leave when two officers arrived in marked police cars and ordered defendant to stop); Smith, 594 F.3d at 539 (holding that once a police officer asked the defendant to stop, a reasonable person would not feel free to leave); United States v. Richardson, 385 F.3d 625, 630 (6th Cir. 2004) (holding that a reasonable person would not feel free to leave when a police officer told the defendant to just hang out right here for me, okay?); Northrop v. Trippett, 265 F.3d 372, 380 (6th Cir.2001) (holding that a reasonable person would not feel free to leave when, after defendant sought to leave the area, one officer directed another officer to stop him and the officers asked him to produce identification); United States v. Buchanon, 72 F.3d 1217, 1223 (6th Cir.1995) (noting that words requiring compliance may be enough to make a reasonable person feel that they are not free to leave). The interaction at the fence is also the moment of the seizure because it was when Beauchamp complied with the officer's instructions and submitted to the officer's show of authority. [W]hat may amount to submission depends on what a person was doing before the show of authority.... Brendlin, 551 U.S. at 262, 127 S.Ct. 2400. Here, Beauchamp was walking away from the officer and was separated from him by a wrought iron fence. Upon the officer's instruction, he stopped and walked toward the officer, and again upon the officer's instruction, walked around the fence that separated them. Just as [s]topping after being ordered to stop triggers the Fourth Amendment, Johnson, 620 F.3d at 691, so too does changing course and complying with an officer's requests. See also United States v. Jones, 562 F.3d 768, 774-75 (6th Cir. 2009) (holding that defendant was not seized until he complied with officer's order to stop); Smith, 594 F.3d at 539 n. 4 (holding that defendant was seized when officers instructed him to stop and he complied); cf. California v. Hodari D., 499 U.S. 621, 625-26, 111 S.Ct. 1547, 113 L.Ed.2d 690 (1991) (holding that, assuming that officer's car pursuit constituted a show of authority, defendant was not seized when he ran away). For these reasons, we conclude that Beauchamp was seized when, in compliance with Officer Fain's instructions, he stopped, turned around, faced the uniformed officer and the marked patrol car, and began to walk toward the officer. It is clear that the police do not make unreasonable seizures merely by approaching individuals on the street or in other public places and putting questions to them if they are willing to listen. United States v. Drayton, 536 U.S. 194, 200, 122 S.Ct. 2105, 153 L.Ed.2d 242 (2002); see also United States v. Davis, 514 F.3d 596, 607 (6th Cir.2008) (noting that, in a consensual encounter, law enforcement officers may ask citizens `general questions without having any reasonable suspicion of criminal activity, so long as the officers refrain from the type of intimidating behavior that would lead a reasonable person to believe that the person was not free to leave') (quoting United States v. Waldon, 206 F.3d 597, 603 (6th Cir. 2000)). But that is not what happened in this case. Here, Officer Fain targeted Beauchamp by driving up to him after he had already walked away from another officer and, as Beauchamp continued to walk away, specifically instructed him to stop and to change the direction in which he was going. The dissent's view that we must defer to the district court's conclusion that the initial encounter between Fain and Beauchamp was consensual is infirm for two reasons. First, the dissent applies only the highly deferential clear error standard of review reserved for factual findings; Dissent at 575, however, the question of consent is a conclusion of law which this court reviews de novo. Moon, 513 F.3d at 536. Taking factual inferences in the light most favorable to the government does not mean we must analyze the encounter strictly from the viewpoint of the police officer. Rather, de novo review requires this court to draw its own conclusions from the facts about whether, when placed in the shoes of Beauchamp, a reasonable person would have felt free to leave. Mendenhall, 446 U.S. at 554, 100 S.Ct. 1870. Second, the dissent focuses on testimony and argument that characterizes Officer Fain's instructions to Beauchamp as asking him to stop and come around the side of the fence, and posits that this court must accept the term ask at face value and, therefore, find the stop consensual. Dissent at 575-76. Again, this would deny the court its de novo interpretation of the totality of the circumstances, including Beauchamp's prior encounter with Officer Dees; Beauchamp's clear desire to avoid further police contact; the targeting and pursuit of Beauchamp by a second, uniformed, officer; and Officer Fain's confronting Beauchamp, requesting that he stop and come around to his side of the fence. [3] Under these circumstances, just as when an officer follows someone and stops him to ask for identification, or to ask him to exit his vehicle, Fain's encounter with Beauchamp does not lose its coercive character simply because he was referred to on the record as having asked for Beauchamp's compliance as opposed to ordering it. Such a distinction is purely semantic. Regardless of how one labels Officer Fain's requests, a reasonable person would not have felt free to leave or to ignore him, and thus Beauchamp was seized.