Lyberger v. Snider

Dist. Ct. did not err in granting defendants-police officers’ motion for summary judgment in plaintiffs’ section 1983 action, alleging that defendants violated their 4th and 1st Amendment rights during incident where police had received 9-1-1 call indicating that defendants had followed victim to her property and refused to leave even though victim had directed them to do so. While defendants arrested plaintiffs on obstruction of justice charges based on plaintiffs failure to provide defendants with identifications when defendants confronted plaintiffs on victim’s property, said refusal was insufficient to establish probable cause for obstruction charge. However, defendants had probable cause to arrest plaintiffs on criminal trespass charge based on victim’s statements to police. As such, plaintiffs could not proceed on their 4th Amendment charge, where there was probable cause to arrest them on at least one charge. Also, plaintiffs could not proceed on their First Amendment claim arising out of their arrests on obstruction charge, where: (1) defendants had probable cause to arrest them on criminal trespass charge; and (2) plaintiffs did not have First Amendment right to withhold their identifications.