Foolish to ask officers to ignore using hidden firearm on driver as factor to terry frisk passenger
Facts Around 9:00 p.m. on November 29, 2021, a Hattiesburg police officer stopped a car with a defective tag light. After the driver told the officer that he had neither identification nor proof of insurance, the officer asked him to step out of the car. While conducting a protective pat-down of the driver, the officer […]
Qualified immunity when subject in handcuffs is actively resisting
Facts (If you are new to 1983 actions, click here for help) On January 17, 2023, R.C. was at a school classmate’s home in Covington, Louisiana. While R.C. was there, three officers from the St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s department arrived—Lieutenant Bill Johnson, Deputy Joel Bratton, and Deputy Christopher Vado—searching for a person of interest in […]
Dad, who was owner of building, gave consent to search desk
Facts On June 25, 2020, law enforcement from the Prentiss County Sheriff’s Department responded to a 911 call. A woman had emerged from the woods near the caller’s residence in distress, covered with bruises, cuts, and scratch marks. When law enforcement arrived at the residence, the woman said Jesse Lee Robinson had assaulted her. The […]
Police did not conduct a fourth amendment search of a tent when subject was trespassing
Facts Caleb Parkerson was sleeping in a tent under a San Antonio overpass where there were other unhoused persons. The property belongs to the Texas Department of Transportation and is marked with numerous “No Trespassing” signs. The San Antonio Police Department regularly conducts “cleanups” of these encampments and arrests anyone who has previously been warned […]
Improper interrogation but harmless error
Facts Brothers Dustin Gray and Austin Brookshire were driving in a car with their friend Willie Jones in the early morning hours of July 6, 2020, when Brookshire turned around from the front passenger seat and fatally shot Willie, who was sitting in the backseat listening to music with headphones. Earlier that evening, on July […]
No standing to contest search when subject abandons truck
Facts On December 3, 2020, San Antonio Police Department Officers David Below and James Van Kirk responded to a report of a “black male in a red pickup truck” pointing a firearm at another male at the M&M Mart, a gas station. When the officers arrived, they saw a black male sitting in the driver’s […]