Opinion ID: 780449
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Canine Identification and Related Events

Text: 31 As discussed above, Grant first became a suspect the night a tracking dog led police from the Ronlov crime scene to his apartment building about two miles away. The dog entered the building, went directly to the second floor, and then into the laundry room on the second floor. However, after ten minutes of attempting to pinpoint the scent, the dog became confused. Her handler inferred that it was because the building's poor ventilation rendered an accurate alert impossible. The dog did not show any interest in sniffing Grant's apartment at any point throughout the evening. 32 Grant's apartment first attracted the officers' attention because the light was on in the apartment but no one answered the door when police knocked. Officer Bahash testified that he spoke to a woman residing in an adjacent unit who indicated that Grant resembled the general physical description of a composite sketch generated from an earlier victim's account. Although this anonymous neighbor led Officer Bahash to focus more intently on Grant's apartment, he never mentioned this conversation in his initial or follow up report of that night — this conversation surfaced for the first time after Grant brought his § 1983 claim. The police have subsequently attempted to locate this woman but have failed. Although this Court may not make credibility judgments about Officer Bahash's testimony, it was well within the domain of the jury to do so. 33 At this point, Officer Bahash could have attempted to obtain a search warrant for Grant's unit. He did not. Instead, he allowed two other officers to pick the top and bottom door locks to Grant's unit for the purpose of waking the occupant, presumably because the heavy knocking proved ineffective. When the door failed to open after the police picked both locks and applied slight pressure, the officers concluded that it was bolted from the inside and the occupant was hiding from the police. 34 In essence, because Grant lived in an apartment building identified by a police tracking dog, left the lights on in his unit, and protected his home with locks that were not easily picked, Officers Bahash and Watson identified him as a suspect for nine rapes and related felonies that occurred in his community. A material issue of fact existed as to whether a reasonable officer would arrive at the same conclusion.