CA5: “Legal process” for false arrest starts with the first appearance before a judge, not on actual arrest

A felony arrest without a warrant on probable cause is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. “Legal process” doesn’t “kick in” until the first appearance before a judge or a warrant is prepared for statute of limitations purposes. [This is important to nonlawyers because I get an inmate letter about every other week stating that their arrest was unlawful because they were arrested without a warrant, a question that is moot after conviction, unless it led to an invalid confession.] Garcia v. San Antonio, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 24574 (5th Cir. Aug. 19, 2019):

The district court correctly determined that Garcia’s claim seeking damages for his arrest without probable cause is time-barred. Wallace, 549 U.S. at 397; Mapes, 541 F.3d at 584. A detention instituted in the absence of legal process is akin to the tort of false arrest and accrues upon arrest. Mapes, 541 F.3d at 584. Garcia argues that a different accrual rule should apply. Since his arrest did not require a warrant, Garcia contends, he was arrested pursuant to wrongful legal process–not without legal process. This is incorrect. Legal process commences when “a judge (or grand jury) first makes a reliable finding of probable cause.” Manuel v. City of Joliet, 137 S. Ct. 911, 919 (2017) (citing Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U.S. 103, 117 n.19 (1975)). Arrests made without arrest warrants can be lawful, but they are not made subject to “legal process” under this definition. The Supreme Court’s decision in Manuel supports this conclusion. There, the Court considered the claims of a petitioner who was arrested without a warrant after a search of his person uncovered allegedly illicit pills. Manuel, 137 S. Ct. at 919. Though the arrest may not have required a warrant, legal process did not kick in until the petitioner appeared before a magistrate judge. Id. at 919-20; cf. Winfrey v. Rogers, 901 F.3d 483, 492-93 (5th Cir. 2018) (holding that an arrest supported by an arrest warrant commenced legal process because the warrant was premised on a judge’s probable cause finding).