{"id":9792,"date":"2013-11-15T09:37:22","date_gmt":"2013-11-15T09:34:33","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-11-15T09:34:33","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=9792","title":{"rendered":"CA10: No clearly established right to have officers talk to all witnesses before arrest on PC"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is no clearly established constitutional right to have an officer talk to all witnesses before making an arrest on probable cause. Beattie v. Smith<\/a>, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 22884 (10th Cir. November 13, 2013): <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The duty to investigate is subject to a standard of reasonableness. See id. Mr. Beattie’s complaint does not assert any specific facts known to the officers at the time of arrest that would have called Ms. Huske’s or Ms. Robinson’s credibility into question. Nevertheless, he does allege that the officers failed to interview Ms. Robinson, a readily available eyewitness whose credibility was crucial to the case against Mr. Beattie, before arresting him. Accepting the complaint’s allegations as true and understanding the alleged facts in the lights most favorable to Mr. Beattie, we are unable to say that Mr. Beattie’s complaint fails to allege facts sufficient to show that the defendants plausibly violated his Fourth Amendment rights. But to say that the complaint alleges a violation of a clearly established right would go too far.<\/p>\n

ii. Clearly Established Law<\/p>\n

Even if the reasonableness of the officers’ investigation is subject to dispute, the officers were entitled to qualified immunity on the second prong of the inquiry: whether Mr. Beattie’s complaint pleads facts showing they violated clearly established law. “Qualified immunity gives government officials breathing room to make reasonable but mistaken judgments, and protects all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law.” Stanton v. Sims, 81 U.S.L.W. 3600, 2013 WL 5878007, at *2 (U.S. Nov. 4, 2013) (per curiam) (internal quotation marks omitted). “We do not require a case directly on point before concluding that the law is clearly established, but existing precedent must have placed the statutory or constitutional question beyond debate.” Id. (internal quotation marks omitted). The cases Mr. Beattie cites do not clearly establish a duty to interview the alleged eyewitness under circumstances comparable to those in this case.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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