Opinion ID: 772729
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: reinholz's arrest

Text: 35 The district court determined that Reinholz was illegally arrested at work and granted his motion to suppress his post-arrest statements because they were the fruit of his illegal arrest. The Government maintains that Reinholz's warrantless arrest was proper on the basis of probable cause. We reject the Government's argument. 36 It stands undisputed that Reinholz's seizure rose to the level of a full-scale arrest. Officers Podany and Hancock met Reinholz at his workplace shortly after 5:00 p.m. As Reinholz approached his vehicle, the plain clothes officers identified themselves, made him stand spread eagle against his Toyota Camry, patted him down for weapons, handcuffed him, and placed him in the back seat of their unmarked police car. He was not free to leave. United States v. Tovar-Valdivia, 193 F.3d 1025, 1027-28 (8th Cir. 1999) (determining that defendant was under arrest when police officer handcuffed him). 37 The Government argues that Reinholz's arrest may be justified because it was carried out in connection with a lawful search warrant. We disagree. Reinholz's arrest cannot be justified under Michigan v. Summers, 452 U.S. 692 (1981), in which the Supreme Court held that police officers, executing a valid warrant to search a house, properly detained a resident of the house as he was walking down the front steps. In Summers, the intrusiveness of detaining an occupant of the premises being searched was outweighed by the law enforcement interests in: (1) preventing flight; (2) minimizing the risk of harm to the officers; and (3) conducting an orderly search. Id. at 701-03; see also United States v. Hogan, 25 F.3d 690, 693 (8th Cir. 1994). Summers does not apply to this case, however, because Reinholz was not on the premises being searched when he was detained. In fact, he was nowhere near his residence. Rather, he was at work, at least a twenty-five-minute drive from his residence. Reinholz was not a flight risk and his seizure did not minimize any possible risk he posed to the officers because Reinholz was at work and he was unaware of the warrant. Therefore, Reinholz's arrest cannot be justified under Summers as a legitimate detention of an occupant of the premises to be searched. 38 The Government analogizes to United States v. Sherrill, 27 F.3d 344 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 513 U.S. 1048 (1994), in support of its argument that Reinholz's arrest was legal because the officers had probable cause to arrest him. Sherrill, however, does not apply to this case. In Sherrill, police officers executing a valid search warrant saw Sherrill leave his residence in his car, they stopped him one block away, and detained him. The court examined the totality of the circumstances and held that probable cause existed because independent police investigation corroborated information from a reliable and confidential informant that Sherrill was dealing crack from his house and surveillance detected an unusual amount of pedestrian traffic consistent with drug dealing. In this case, however, no informant notified police, there existed no corroborating independent police investigation, and surveillance failed to reveal any criminal activity. 39 Probable cause for an arrest exists when the totality of circumstances demonstrates that the arresting officer personally knows or has been reliably informed of sufficient facts to warrant a belief that a crime has been committed and that the person to be arrested committed it. Kuehl v. Burtis, 173 F.3d 646, 650 (8th Cir. 1999) (citing United States v. Washington, 109 F.3d 459, 465 (8th Cir. 1997)). 40 We have carefully reviewed the record and we conclude that the police officers did not have probable cause to arrest Reinholz because the arresting officers did not personally know or have reliable information to warrant a belief that Reinholz committed a crime. Reinholz did not have a drug record, police did not observe him engaged in any illegal activity, there was no corroborating independent police investigation, and surveillance failed to reveal any criminal activity connected to the visitors of Chevalier's house. Police had been reliably informed that Reinholz legally purchased iodine crystals and their trash search revealed drug paraphernalia. That information does not provide sufficient facts to warrant a belief that Reinholz committed a drug offense. Our conclusion that police officers did not have probable cause to arrest Reinholz does not contradict our view that the affidavit supports probable cause to search Chevalier's house. Chevalier's drug record connected the drug paraphernalia gathered from the trash to her house and, therefore, provided the critical link supporting probable cause for the search of her house. The police officers did not, however, have probable cause to arrest Reinholz because the information in their possession at the time of the arrest did not sufficiently warrant a belief that Reinholz committed a crime. Therefore, we hold that the district court did not err when it determined that Officers Podany and Hancock illegally arrested Reinholz.