Court Opinion

ID: 9476009
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 05:45:45.472215+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:45:05.314398
License: Public Domain

HEANEY, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
This Court grievously errs in overruling the district court. The district court correctly decided that there was more than sufficient evidence from which the jury could have found that the defendants did not have probable cause to arrest Clay. We have no business substituting our judgment for that of the district court and the jury-
I. PROBABLE CAUSE.
I have no quarrel with the general proposition that law enforcement authorities have probable cause to arrest a suspect when a victim of a crime has given detailed information to the authorities which is internally consistent and which identifies that suspect. But this is not always the case. See B.C.R. Transport Co., Inc. v. Fontaine, 727 F.2d 7, 10 (1st Cir.1984). Victims’ reports of crimes carry merely a presumption of reliability. Law enforcement authorities still “must remain alert to the existence of any circumstances which would make that presumption inoperative.” LeFave, Search and Seizure, A Treatise on the Fourth Amendment § 3.4(a), at 719 (2d ed. 1987) (citing United States v. Phillips, 727 F.2d 392 (5th Cir.1984); State v. Morris, 444 So.2d 1200 (La.1984)). And the ultimate question is still for the jury. Linn v. Garcia, 531 F.2d. 855, 858 (8th Cir.1976); see also B.C.R. Transport, 727 F.2d at 10.1 Here, the jury could have reasonably concluded that Sheriff Conlee and the Sheriff’s Department did not remain alert to circumstances that made the presumption inoperative.
The jury properly could have found that the anonymous tip, the victim’s intoxicated state, the victim’s poor eyesight, and the suspect’s clean record were factors which should have prompted the Department to seek further corroboration before arresting Clay. The Sheriff’s Department clearly had plenty of time to carry out a more thorough investigation. The Department could have compared the victim’s description of the rapist’s car with a description of Clay’s car; obtained a better description of the attacker, especially how he was dressed; and, more importantly, questioned some of the witnesses at the night club who saw the victim leave in the rapist’s car. Such information, which the Department did in fact readily obtain shortly after Clay’s arrest, would have exculpated Clay.
If the Sheriff’s Department had taken some of these precautions, Andrew Clay and his family could have avoided the shock of Clay’s arrest in front of the children, the immediate confiscation of Clay’s state trooper’s uniform, and the embarrass*1172ment of broadcasts over radio and television that Clay had been arrested on suspicion of rape. In addition, there is evidence that Ms. Clay also lost her job as a dispatcher at the Prairie County Jail because of the implication of Andrew Clay as a rapist. The loss of her job could perhaps have also been avoided.
I concede that it is a close question whether the police, as a matter of law, had probable cause to arrest Clay before the Sheriff received the two telephone calls regarding the rape. The anonymous telephone call informing Sheriff Conlee that Alfonso Powell, not Andrew Clay, had raped the victim, however, clearly changed the circumstances of this case and converted the issue of probable cause into a question for the jury. The majority considers the call not to be “reasonably trustworthy” because the caller did not substantiate his allegation or show a basis for his knowledge. I think the majority misinterprets the significance of the phone call.
Clearly, an anonymous call is not reliable in and of itself. Thus, in this case, if Clay had not been the initial suspect and the Sheriff’s Department received the anonymous call implicating Powell, the Sheriff could not have used the call as a basis for establishing probable cause to arrest Powell. More information would have been needed. In the instant case, however, the information that Powell committed the rape does not necessarily have to outweigh the information that Clay committed the rape in order to negate the initial presence of probable cause. It merely has to negate the presumption. The jury could reasonably have believed that the presumption was negated by the anonymous tip, the victim’s intoxicated state, and her poor eyesight.
II. ARREST WARRANT.
The arrest warrant was clearly invalid on its face. The victim’s affidavit was conclu-sory and set forth no facts on which the issuing magistrate could determine the existence of probable cause. The only question is whether the magistrate had more information other than that contained in the victim’s affidavit that might have justified the arrest. See United States v. Fernandez-Guzman, 577 F.2d 1093, 1098 (7th Cir.1978). Here, there is no evidence of other affidavits provided to the issuing magistrate to establish probable cause.
III. LIABILITY IN OFFICIAL CAPACITY.
The majority’s distinction between official capacity liability and supervisory liability is well taken. To show official capacity liability, the plaintiff must prove that a policy or custom of the Sheriff’s Department caused the violation in question. See supra p. 1170. The following portion of the instructions adequately poses the question of the existence of a policy or custom in the Sheriff’s Department:
You are instructed that Collidge [sic] Conlee as sheriff is not liable for the acts of his deputies or jailers in his employ unless it is shown that their actions were carried out at his direction or with his approval or that their actions constituted a course of conduct or a custom that had been approved by him as sheriff.
In addition to Department “custom,” this instruction also mentions actions “carried out” at Conlee’s “direction or with his approval.” The inclusion of these elements, while not necessary to an official-capacity liability instruction, does not introduce error into the instruction.
In Pembauer v. City of Cincinnati, 475 U.S. 469, 106 S.Ct. 1292, 89 L.Ed.2d 452 (1986), the Supreme Court considered a case similar to the present one. In Pem-bauer, a grand jury indicted a physician for fraudulently accepting welfare payments. After two of the physician’s employees were subpoenaed and failed to appear before the grand jury, a court issued an order commanding the sheriff to bring the employees before the court to testify and to answer for contempt. When the physician refused to allow the deputies into his clinic, a county prosecutor instructed the deputies “to go in and get” the witnesses. Upon receiving instructions from their supervisors to follow the prosecutor’s advice, the deputies, along with city police officers, *1173entered the clinic by chopping down the door with an axe. The physician filed a section 1983 action against the city and county for violations of his fourth amendment rights. The Supreme Court found the county liable because the decision of the prosecutor caused the violation of the physician’s fourth amendment rights.
The Court analyzed what constituted government “custom or policy.” The Court observed that in order for governmental liability to exist for actions by non-policymakers, “the decision to adopt that particular course of action [must] properly [be] made by that government’s authorized decisionmakers.” Moreover, “where action is directed by those who establish governmental policy, the municipality is * * * responsible whether that action is to be taken only once or to be taken repeatedly.” 475 U.S. at---, 106 S.Ct. at 1298-99, 89 L.Ed.2d at 463-64.
With these principles in mind, the instruction. which allowed the jury to find Conlee liable in his official capacity if he either directed the deputies to act as they did in arresting Clay or if he approved of their actions was proper. In either case, the Sheriff himself would be the one making the ultimate decision as to how the deputies were to proceed. Such a choice by an “authorized decisionmaker” would be sufficient to create a causal link between the Sheriff’s Department’s policy and the constitutional tort against Clay.
The only question which poses any difficulty is whether Conlee was in fact the local government’s authorized decisionmaker with respect to arrest procedures. The record permits a finding that he was. Sheriff Conlee was asked whether he was the supervisor responsible for making sure “that arrests are made and everything is in compliance with the law.” Conlee answered that he was “the administrator in the Sheriff and Collector’s office.” Conlee was also asked whether “you have a policy or a practice established in the Sheriff’s Department relating to the investigation of crimes,” whether the arresting officers performed “according to your established procedure,” and whether meetings were held to discuss “policy and procedure.” In responding to each question, the Sheriff indicated that he ultimately had control over the operation of the Department as it concerned arrest procedures. I therefore believe the jury verdict should not be overturned.

. In B.C.R. Transport, the First Circuit considered a section 1983 action alleging wrongful seizure of property in violation of the fourth amendment. In B.C.R. Transport, a man named Hubbard had been picked up by the police as he was walking down a rural road. Hubbard told the police that he had agreed to work for B.C.R. but that employees forcibly held Hubbard against his will and made him work without pay. Two B.C.R. employees were arrested and B.C.R. property was seized based on Hubbard’s allegations.
The Court found that the record supported a jury’s finding that the police acted without probable cause. The Court pointed out that the record showed that Hubbard was a drifter and that he talked loudly and rather incoherently when discussing the alleged crime. The Court also noted that the suspects were not known to the police as persons of violent propensities. Id. at 10.
In the instant case, the victim’s behavior and condition perhaps should not have caused the police initially to doubt her explanation to the extent that the police should have doubted Hubbard’s information in B.C.R. Transport. I do, however, firmly believe the anonymous telephone call added the doubt necessary to make this case factually analogous to B.C.R. Transport.