{"id":63339,"date":"2026-02-26T21:18:41","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T02:18:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=63339"},"modified":"2026-02-26T21:18:41","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T02:18:41","slug":"ca6-ptfs-expert-in-a-civil-franks-claim-only-provided-a-legal-conclusion-and-thats-not-enough","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=63339","title":{"rendered":"CA6: Ptf’s expert in a civil Franks claim only provided a legal conclusion, and “That’s not enough”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Plaintiff in a civil Franks claim failed to show that the officer knowingly misrepresented facts. Of note, however, is that he used an expert witness on falsity which essentially only provided a legal conclusion. Chancellor v. Geelhood<\/a>, 2026 U.S. App. LEXIS 5599 (6th Cir. Feb. 25, 2026):<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Chancellor’s expert affidavit fares no better. Chancellor’s appellate brief states that his expert “is of the opinion” that “the lighting and Geelhood’s distance from [the home]” indicates that “Geelhood would have not been able to identify illegal activity at the property.” Appellant Br. at 32. But this also mischaracterizes what the witness said. Katsaris did not offer expert testimony about whether Geelhood could have seen the porch from his vantage point that evening. Katsaris instead stated that he had reviewed some of the testimony and exhibits in this case. He then recited a list of facts drawn from those materials, which included Geelhood’s statements that he had surveilled the home from “approximately 300-400 feet away \u2026 in the ‘late evening,'” and had witnessed three hand-to-hand drug transactions. R. 81-14, Expert Aff., PageID 2987. Katsaris then stated that he was of the “opinion that Geelhood’s surveillance of the property was insufficient to give him probable cause that illegal activity was occurring at the property.” Id. Katsaris offered no reason for reaching that conclusion. Chancellor\u2014and his expert\u2014must do more than disagree with the magistrate’s ultimate finding of probable cause. Instead, they must present “evidence” showing that “no reasonable officer with access to the contradictory information would have sworn out such an affidavit.” Butler, 936 F.3d at 419. But Chancellor’s expert merely puts forth his own legal conclusion. That’s not enough.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Plaintiff in a civil Franks claim failed to show that the officer knowingly misrepresented facts. Of note, however, is that he used an expert witness on falsity which essentially only provided a legal conclusion. Chancellor v. Geelhood, 2026 U.S. App. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-franks-doctrine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63339"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63340,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63339\/revisions\/63340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}