Opinion ID: 2704
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Legality of the Challenged Arrest and Searches

Text: Applying these principles to this case, we consider first whether defendants' actions violated plaintiffs' rights under both the United States and Connecticut Constitutions to be free from unreasonable searches and arrests. See U.S. Const. amend. IV; [17] Conn. Const. art. First, §§ 7, 9. [18] Ordinarily, an arrest or search pursuant to a warrant issued by a neutral magistrate is presumed reasonable because such warrants may issue only upon a showing of probable cause. See Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. at 171, 98 S.Ct. 2674; United States v. Awadallah, 349 F.3d 42, 64 (2d Cir.2003); Golino v. City of New Haven, 950 F.2d 864, 870 (2d Cir.1991); see also United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. 897, 913-14, 104 S.Ct. 3405, 82 L.Ed.2d 677 (1984). Plaintiffs nevertheless insist that the presumption is defeated in this case because (1) the warrant affidavits, on their face, fail to demonstrate probable cause, see generally United States v. Leon, 468 U.S. at 923, 104 S.Ct. 3405; and (2) the issuing magistrate was, in any event, misled into finding probable cause by material omissions for which defendants were knowingly or recklessly responsible, see Franks v. Delaware, 438 U.S. at 155-56, 98 S.Ct. 2674; Golino v. City of New Haven, 950 F.2d at 870-71.
Before discussing these two contentions, we observe that federal and Connecticut law are identical in holding that probable cause to arrest exists when police officers have knowledge or reasonably trustworthy information of facts and circumstances that are sufficient to warrant a person of reasonable caution in the belief that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing a crime. Weyant v. Okst, 101 F.3d 845, 852 (2d Cir.1996); see State v. James, 261 Conn. 395, 415, 802 A.2d 820, 833 (2002) (Probable cause exists when the facts and circumstances within the knowledge of the officer and of which he has reasonable trustworthy information are sufficient in themselves to warrant a man of reasonable caution to believe that a [crime] has been committed. (internal quotation marks omitted)). Similarly, under both federal and state law, probable cause to search is demonstrated where the totality of circumstances indicates a fair probability that contraband or evidence of a crime will be found in a particular place. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. 213, 238, 103 S.Ct. 2317, 76 L.Ed.2d 527 (1983); accord United States v. Gaskin, 364 F.3d 438, 456 (2d Cir.2004); State v. Vincent, 229 Conn. 164, 171, 640 A.2d 94, 98 (1994) (noting that valid search requires probable cause to believe that the particular items to be seized are connected with criminal activity or will assist in a particular apprehension or conviction and that the items sought to be seized will be found in the place to be searched); State v. Orellana, 89 Conn.App. 71, 80, 872 A.2d 506, 516 (Conn.App.Ct.2005) (citing Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. at 231-32, 103 S.Ct. 2317). Accordingly, we need not separately discuss federal and state law in assessing probable cause for the challenged arrest and searches. As the Supreme Court has famously observed, probable cause is a fluid concept . . . not readily, or even usefully, reduced to a neat set of legal rules. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. at 232, 103 S.Ct. 2317; see United States v. Gaskin, 364 F.3d at 456. While probable cause requires more than a mere suspicion, of wrongdoing, Mallory v. United States, 354 U.S. 449, 455, 77 S.Ct. 1356, 1 L.Ed.2d 1479 (1957), its focus is on probabilities, not hard certainties, Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. at 231, 103 S.Ct. 2317. In assessing probabilities, a judicial officer must look to `the factual and practical considerations of everyday life on which reasonable and prudent men, not legal technicians, act.' Id. (quoting Brinegar v. United States, 338 U.S. 160, 175, 69 S.Ct. 1302, 93 L.Ed. 1879 (1949)); accord United States v. Gaskin, 364 F.3d at 456. Finely tuned standards such as proof beyond a reasonable doubt or by a preponderance of the evidence, useful in formal trials, have no place in a probable cause determination. Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. at 235, 103 S.Ct. 2317. Nor can probable cause be analogized to a prima facie case. See id. (observing that `only the probability, and not a prima facie showing, of criminal activity' is necessary to establish probable cause to search or arrest (quoting Spinelli v. United States, 393 U.S. 410, 419, 89 S.Ct. 584, 21 L.Ed.2d 637 (1969))). In sum, probable cause does not demand any showing that a good-faith belief be correct or more likely true than false. Texas v. Brown, 460 U.S. 730, 742, 103 S.Ct. 1535, 75 L.Ed.2d 502 (1983). It requires only such facts as make wrongdoing or the discovery of evidence thereof probable. It has long been recognized that, where there is no dispute as to what facts were relied on to demonstrate probable cause, the existence of probable cause is a question of law for the court. See Stewart v. Sonneborn, 98 U.S. 187, 194, 25 L.Ed. 116 (1878) (observing that whether facts alleged to show probable cause are true is a matter of fact, but whether, supposing them to be true, they amount to a probable cause, is a question of law (internal quotation marks omitted)); accord Director Gen. of Railroads v. Kastenbaum, 263 U.S. 25, 28, 44 S.Ct. 52, 68 L.Ed. 146 (1923) (observing that where facts are in dispute, court submits the question of probable cause to the jury, but with instructions as to what facts will amount to probable cause if proved); Sanders v. Palmer, 55 F. 217, 220 (2d Cir.1893) (holding that question whether facts, supposing them to be true, . . . amount to a probable cause, is a question of law; when the facts are disputed, it is the duty of the court to instruct the jury what facts, if established, will constitute a probable cause . . . and to submit to them only the question as to the existence of those facts); see also United States v. Awadallah, 349 F.3d at 65 (distinguishing between de novo review of legal question whether undisputed facts support probable cause and deferential review of factual question whether, in case of misstated or omitted material facts, affiant's actions were deliberate or reckless). In this case, there can be no dispute as to what facts the defendants relied on to establish probable cause for the challenged arrest and searches; they are memorialized in warrant affidavits. Thus, whether the affidavits, on their face, demonstrate probable cause, is a question of law. In answering that question, however, a reviewing court must accord considerable deference to the probable cause determination of the issuing magistrate, see Illinois v. Gates, 462 U.S. at 238-39, 103 S.Ct. 2317 (holding that duty of reviewing court is simply to ensure that the magistrate had a substantial basis for probable cause determination (internal quotation marks omitted)); accord Velardi v. Walsh, 40 F.3d 569, 574 n. 1 (2d Cir.1994), mindful of the well established principle that a showing of probable cause cannot be negated simply by demonstrating that an inference of innocence might also have been drawn from the facts alleged, see United States v. Webb, 623 F.2d 758, 761 (2d Cir.1980); see also United States v. Forero-Rincon, 626 F.2d 218, 222 (2d Cir.1980). To the extent plaintiffs argue, in addition to their facial challenge, that material omissions infected the issuing magistrate's probable cause determination, there is no dispute between the parties as to what purported omissions are appropriately considered. They are the three nondisclosures identified by the district court, i.e., that (1) defendants had not spoken with Officer Hebert about his understanding of Walczyk's bloodbath statement; (2) none of Walczyk's prior arrests had resulted in a conviction for threatening, and (3) Walczyk had not lived at his parents' home for seven years. See Walczyk v. Rio, 339 F.Supp.2d at 389. The materiality of these omissions presents a mixed question of law and fact. See Velardi v. Walsh, 40 F.3d at 574. Whether omitted information is relevant to the probable cause determination is a question of law that we review de novo. Id. If we identify relevancy, then questions of fact may arise as to what weight . . . a neutral magistrate would likely have given such information, id., and whether defendants acted deliberately or recklessly in omitting the information from the warrant affidavits, United States v. Awadallah, 349 F.3d at 65 (internal quotation marks omitted). Even in such circumstances, however, a court may grant summary judgment based on qualified immunity where the evidence, viewed in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, discloses no genuine dispute that a magistrate would have issued the warrant on the basis of the `corrected affidavits.' Velardi v. Walsh, 40 F.3d at 574 (emphasis in original). Mindful of these principles, we proceed to consider plaintiffs' warrant challenges, focusing first on the arrest of Thomas Walczyk and the search of his 28 Tunxis Street residence and then on the search of Elizabeth Walczyk's 27 Tunxis Street home.
We reject as without merit Thomas Walczyk's contention that the challenged warrant affidavits, on their face, fail to state probable cause for his arrest or the search of his 28 Tunxis Street home. The facts alleged establish probable cause to believe (1) that Walczyk had violated Connecticut law by threaten[ing] to commit . . . [a] crime [of violence] in reckless disregard of the risk of causing . . . terror to another person, Conn. Gen.Stat. § 53a-62(a)(3), and (2) that Walczyk maintained in his residence firearms that, in light of past use, were relevant evidence that he intended to threaten violence and recklessly disregarded the threat's terrorizing effect. The facts reveal that, on August 30, 1999, Walczyk complained to Officer Hebert that the police were not taking the action necessary to avoid a bloodbath. A reasonable person would understand the bloodbath reference as a prediction of probable violence between Walczyk and Barberino. More to the point, a reasonable person would understand from other facts alleged in the affidavits that Walczyk would likely be the person initiating any such violence. A few months earlier, Walczyk had stated to Captain Rio that, if the police did not assist him in his property dispute with Barberino, he would take matters into his own hands, doing whatever he had to do to protect his property rights. Rio knew that what Walczyk frequently put into his hands to resolve disputes were loaded firearms that he stored in his home. In the past, Walczyk had brandished firearms retrieved from his home at various individuals, including Barberino workers on two occasions. On one of those occasions, the brandished weapon was a loaded automatic rifle and, [19] when police intervened, Walczyk initially defied their orders to put down the weapon and resisted arrest. Moreover, the affidavits demonstrated that Walczyk plainly knew how to fire his weapons; he had used them to kill a cat on his property. Rio further knew that Walczyk's efforts to vindicate his property rights peaceably through the courts had failed. Under the totality of these circumstances, the issuing magistrate certainly had a substantial basis to conclude that, when Walczyk told police that their continued failure to assist him in his property dispute with Barberino would result in a bloodbath, he was effectively threatening to employ violence against Barberino employees with reckless disregard for the terror such a threat would cause when communicated to the intended victim. We are, of course, mindful that a Connecticut appellate court has ruled otherwise. Observing that Walczyk's bloodbath statement was made to secure police assistance, that court concluded: A statement to a police officer that the police needed to act to avoid a `bloodbath' cannot be the basis of probable cause to believe that the defendant, at the time or in the immediate future, would engage in threatening behavior. State v. Walczyk, 76 Conn.App. at 181-82, 818 A.2d at 876 (emphasis in original). We respectfully disagree. Walczyk may have desired police assistance in his land dispute, but how he sought to compel that assistance was by threatening violence. Walczyk was, after all, the only person to have used an instrument of violence in connection with the land dispute. Given his prior brandishing of loaded firearms, it was certainly probable that Walczyk's bloodbath statement was a threat to use violence against Barberino workers if the police did not intervene in his favor (something they could not do in light of state court rulings). Whether Walczyk would, in fact, have acted on his threat is not determinative of whether it was probable that he had made the threat with reckless disregard of the terror it would cause Barberino. [20] We conclude that the affidavits, on their face, state facts reasonably supporting such a finding by the issuing magistrate. Walczyk submits that the search warrant affidavit nevertheless failed to demonstrate that there was any connection between his present lawful possession of firearms and the alleged crime of threatening. We are persuaded that the warrant affidavit states probable cause to believe that a search of Walczyk's home for firearms would produce evidence relevant to demonstrating that Walczyk had committed the offense of threatening. At the time the search warrant affidavit was prepared, Walczyk's apparent possession of firearms constituted relevant evidence which could suggest that his intent in making the bloodbath remark was, in fact, to threaten violence. See State v. Crudup, 81 Conn.App. 248, 260 n. 14, 838 A.2d 1053, 1062 n. 14 (Conn.App.Ct.2004) (discussing intent element of threatening). Specifically, a seizure of firearms from Walczyk's home could have shown that, at the time Walczyk made the bloodbath remark, he had the actual capacity to cause bloodshed. Moreover, such a seizure following the authorized search could have served to corroborate witness accounts that Walczyk had used weapons against Barberino workers and others in the past, which in turn could have helped establish his reckless disregard of the bloodbath remark's terrorizing effect. In sum, Walczyk's possession of firearms was evidence relevant to the mens rea element of the crime because a factfinder could reasonably infer from such possession and from Walczyk's past use of firearms that his bloodbath statement was not idle hyperbole, but an intentional threat of violence made with reckless disregard of its potential to cause terror. As the search warrant affidavit makes clear, the police were aware that Walczyk had previously used his home to store the firearms he brandished in confrontations with others, including Barberino workers, and thus they had probable cause to believe that evidence relevant to his alleged threatening would turn up in a search of his home. Accordingly, we hold that plaintiffs' facial challenge to the warrant affidavits in this case necessarily fails as a matter of law. [21]