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Officers had reasonable but mistaken belief that plaintiff was man wanted in arrest warrant on entry into house

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

USMS acted reasonably in mistaking plaintiff for the person they wanted at the address where he was found. El Bey v. Roop, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 13776, 2008 FED App. 0234P (6th Cir. July 1, 2008): We conclude, based on this evidence, that the officers on the scene did not act unreasonably in mistaking El Bey for Ray when El Bey answered their knock on the door. The officers actions, as alleged by El Bey, leave little doubt that they could have acted with more care in determining whether the person who answered the door was actually the subject of the arrest warrant. Nevertheless, we conclude that the officers--who already had reason to believe that Ray would be at 1580 Greenlake Drive--formed a reasonable, albeit mistaken, belief that El Bey was the subject of the arrest warrant in question...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on July 05, 2008 (boomark / email).