CA6: In qualified immunity cases for false arrest, ignorance of the law by an officer is no excuse

Officers who raided a house where there was underage drinking with adults had no qualified immunity on the arrest where one young man was there with his father, and Ohio law clearly exempted that from the law. This was a mistake of law, not of fact, essentially “ignorance of the law is no excuse” [my words, not the court’s]. Pritchard v. Hamilton Twp. Bd. of Trs., 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 10597, 2011 FED App. 0355N (6th Cir. May 25, 2011) (unpublished)*:

In a line of cases, our Court has addressed a somewhat analogous situation, whether an officer has probable cause to arrest an individual who may have an affirmative justification for a suspected criminal act. See Fridley, 291 F.3d at 872; Painter v. Robertson, 185 F.3d 557 (6th Cir. 1999); Estate of Dietrich v. Burrows, 167 F.3d 1007 (6th Cir. 1999). In both Dietrich and Painter, the arrestee was charged with carrying a concealed weapon despite the presence of a statute that provided that an individual engaged in a business activity that is particularly susceptible to criminal attack has an affirmative defense to the charge. Painter, 185 F.3d at 564-65; Dietrich, 167 F.3d at 1010-11. In both cases we denied qualified immunity, holding that the arresting police officers lacked probable cause because the officers were aware of sufficient facts and circumstances to establish that the arrestees had a statutorily legitimated affirmative justification for the suspected criminal act at the time of the arrest. Painter, 185 F.3d at 571; Dietrich, 167 F.3d at 1012.