Opinion ID: 2998624
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: defendants Sheppard and Riley

Text: 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