Civil Model Jury Charge 3.20 FALSE IMPRISONMENT (FALSE ARREST) D. Police Arrest Without a Warrant
A
police officer may arrest an individual without a warrant if he/she has a
reasonable basis to believe that a crime is being or has been committed, that
the person to be arrested is committing the crime or has committed it, even
though it is not being committed or has not been committed in the officer's
presence, and, after the arrest, the individual is restrained only for a
reasonable period of time before he/she is taken before a judge or another
appropriate public official to obtain a warrant for the arrest.
So,
in deciding whether plaintiff was falsely imprisoned, there are two decisions
you have to make.
The
first is whether plaintiff has proven, by the greater weight of the evidence,
that defendant intentionally detained or restrained plaintiff in his/her
personal liberty or freedom of movement by arresting him/her.
The
second decision, assuming you find that defendant did intentionally restrain
plaintiff by an arrest, involves defendant's claim that he/she had a right to
make the arrest and that the confinement was only for a reasonable period of
time. Here, the defendant must prove this to you by the greater weight of the
evidence. So, you must decide, one, whether defendant was a police officer when
these events took place; two, if so, whether defendant had a reasonable basis
to believe that the defendant was a police officer when these events took
place; two, if so, whether defendant had a reasonable basis to believe that the
specific crime [insert type of crime] was being or had been committed; three,
if so, whether defendant also had reasonable or probable cause to believe that
plaintiff committed that crime; and four, if so, did defendant restrain plaintiff
only for a reasonable period of time before bringing plaintiff before a judge
or other appropriate public official to obtain a warrant for the arrest.
A
reasonable basis or probable cause must be that the facts and circumstances
known to the officer were those which would lead a reasonably cautious person
to believe that a crime was being committed or had been committed and that the
plaintiff had committed it. It must be
more than mere conjecture or unfounded suspicion. In considering the reasonableness of the
defendant's judgment you may consider that a person acting under the pressures
of being a police officer cannot make decisions with the same precision as a
person making cautious study of the same facts at home while seated in an
armchair. Also, you may consider that an
officer of the law has no right to intrude upon the rights of citizens because
the officer has an unfounded hunch that something is wrong. A police officer is required to follow the
laws guiding his/her behavior. [Here discuss facts of arrest and
detention].
So,
even if you find that the defendant had proper grounds to make such an arrest,
you still must consider whether he/she restrained the plaintiff only for a
reasonable period of time before he/she could take him/her before a judge or
public official and obtain a warrant for his/her arrest or whether he/she
confined the plaintiff without bringing him/her before the nearest judge or
official for a length of time that was unnecessary under the circumstances. A reasonable time to take an arrested person
before the nearest judge or official would be the time it would take an
ordinary, diligent police officer to do that task under the circumstances that
faced the defendant. The reasonableness
of this time would be affected by the availability of the nearest judge or
official considering the location of the arrest, the time of day or night, the
problem of confining the plaintiff, the available means for reaching a judge or
official and any other factors that you might think would have a bearing on the
amount of time. If the defendant
imprisoned the plaintiff for an unreasonable time before bringing him/her to
the nearest judge or official, that would be false imprisonment, even though
the initial confinement was proper. If
the confinement is in all respects proper according to the rules as I have
explained them, then you must find for the defendant. But if you find that there was a confinement,
and you find that either there was no right to make the arrest or that the
confinement was for an unreasonable period of time, then you must find for the
plaintiff.
[go on
to Damages (False Imprisonment (False Arrest)), Charge 8.47C]
