Suspicious behavior warranted a Terry stop

The police can detain you if they have reasonable suspicion. In this case, the plaintiff's actions were suspicious enough for such a detention, and the case is dismissed. The plaintiff, I am sure, protested that he was doing nothing wrong, that he was just sitting in a parking lot. But context is crucial, and the courts are not sympathetic to men like this.

The case is Mastromonaco v. County of Westchester, a summary order issued on October 9. The rule is that “[A]n officer may, consistent with the Fourth Amendment, conduct a brief, investigatory stop when the officer has a reasonable, articulable suspicion that criminal activity is afoot. This standard is met where an officer can point to specific and articulable facts which, taken together with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant [the] intrusion.” We call that a Terry stop, named after a 1968 Supreme Court ruling. No warrant is necessary for a Terry stop.

Plaintiff was stopped because he was in a school parking lot after the school day had concluded, and his car was secluded "and a considerable distance from any other campus activities." In addition, plaintiff and his companion would not make eye contact with the police. They also "attempted to drive away abruptly in the middle of the conversation." This is suspicious behavior, so the police were legally able to apprehend the plaintiff to prevent him from driving away.

Once plaintiff was seized, the police searched him and also searched the car. They smelled marijuana in the car. Hence, plaintiff's formal arrest. That arrest was legal also, says the Court of Appeals (Calabresi, Pooler and Park). Plaintiff must have been acquitted of the charge, or maybe the prosecution dropped the charge, which allowed him to sue for false arrest. But that clearance does not mean the police lacked probable cause to arrest. Lots of people walk free after an arrest but cannot sue for false arrest because the courts ask whether the police had probable cause to arrest at the time of the arrest; there is no room for Monday-morning quarterbacking in cases like this.