"For those who worry that qualified immunity can be invoked under
absurd circumstances: Buckle up.
Austin Thompson Hughes is a Good Samaritan. After 2:30 a.m.,
Hughes called 911 to report a pickup truck swerving violently across a four-
lane highway in Houston. While Hughes was on the phone with emergency
dispatchers, the drunk driver crashed. Still on the phone with 911, Hughes
pulled behind the drunk driver and effectuated a citizen’s arrest in
accordance with Texas law. But when police officers arrived at the scene,
they let the drunk driver go and then arrested Good Samaritan Hughes.
(Seriously.) Piling insanity on irrationality, the officers then charged Hughes
with a felony for impersonating a peace officer. Hughes spent thousands of
dollars defending against the frivolous criminal charges before the City of
Houston dropped them. Then Hughes brought this § 1983 suit against the
two officers who victimized him. The district court denied qualified
immunity. We affirm. (Obviously.)"
Dude got lucky…He basically won the lottery. Had a wave function collapsed to a slightly different state he would have ended up with a “regular” judge and rotted in jail over bullshit.
Just further proof that you should MYOB. At this point in my life, I ain’t calling the cops for shit. I have enough chaos in my life without voluntarily picking up the phone to call more down upon me…
I can see where a good Samaritan would follow a drunk driver until police arrive. Why would you chase a person who was running away from the vehicle? Why would you be carrying handcuffs? Why would you initiate a citizen’s arrest? Once the vehicle is no longer running, there is no great danger to the general public.
I can see where a reasonable person would reach into the vehicle and take the keys, so they can turn them over to the police when they arrive. This case smells like the good Samaritan wants to be a police officer and was out looking for someone to arrest.
As far as making an arrest the same night for impersonating a police officer, I suspect a supervisor sent the police to the good Samaritan’s residence to take him into custody. I think it would have been more prudent to have a detective investigate the good Samaritan and determine if he had a pattern of doing this sort of thing, then turn the information over to the prosecutor for review and charges if appropriate.
We were driving home from IDPA one time and an elderly Gentleman in traffic next to us had an entire Bar set up in his car. Ice, a bottle of Scotch and what looked like tonic water, I know because I took inventory as he poured a large drinking glass full of Scotch and top it off with Ice.
The Gentleman Driving our vehicle called 911 and we followed along safely behind his weaving vehicle until we turned off.
I’m not going to become involved, really not my circus, not my monkeys.
Very much do plus the other leg of the 3 legged stool who was involved in the kidnapping.
“Despite these misstatements, omissions, and inconsistencies, Garcia
submitted the probable cause affidavit to the District Attorney’s office. The
DA charged Hughes with felony impersonation of a public servant, and the
262nd Criminal District Court of Harris County issued a warrant for
Hughes’s arrest.”
I don’t blame you but it’s really sad that things have gone this bad in this Country. I made a lot of good arrests over the years thanks to good people detaining a bad guy until I arrived. I don’t remember a single one of them getting jammed up over it either.
As stated by someone else, judges are often just a rubber stamp for LE agencies. If they’re actually doing their jobs, they’re making sure the warrants aren’t perfunctory excuses to violate people’s 4th Amendment rights.
This may not apply to the warrant judge(and apparently doesn’t apply to the QI denial judges), but the majority of judges and prosecutors support le lying as shown by the creation and continuing existence of Brady/Giglio list.
This is what happens when nobody runs against the incumbent judge or everybody jut votes for “the name we know” because there’s no real way to vet so-called "non-partisan"snort offices beyond digging into obscure Public Disclosure campaign finance records to see who’s paying for their election.
Oh that is definitely another part of a veritable shit load of parts(such as their codified and case law exemptions and immunities along with professional courtesies for a few others) of the total problem.
Not seeing any arrests, charges, convictions of Michael Garcia or Joshua Few over their perjury scheme, so apparently their lying to the prosecutor and judge was a “can’t rape the willing” kind of arrangement.
How about criminal conspiracy to deprive rights. The judge should absolutely be investigated and all his warrants reviewed. If no evidence is found, clear him to resume his duties. If evidence is found, prosecute him to the fullest extent of the law.