Former Memphis police officer Arthur Sease had a scam going. He would arrange for a third party to make a drug deal with a dealer. In the middle of the deal Sease or a cohort would arrest the dealer, steal the drugs and take any money they found.

He was fired and convicted on 44 counts in Federal Court. Among the charges were violations of conspiracy to deprive another of their civil rights under the color of law, deprivation of civil rights under the color of law, and robbery and extortion under the color of official right interfering with interstate commerce. He was sentence to life plus 255 years ¹.

Well established constitutional law states that when considering the constitutionality of a search or an arrest under the Fourth Amendment you do not consider the intent of the police officers. (See Whren v. United States) Sease had the chutzpa to argue that because the drug deal which he set up was illegal, it made no difference whether his taking of the drugs and the money was for legal reasons or for illegal reasons. If there was no constitutional violation he could not be convicted of depriving the drug dealers of their civil rights.

The Sixth Circuit held that “[u]nlike the officers in Whren, Sease and his co-conspirators were not engaging in bona fide law enforcement activities. Instead, they were using the appearance of law enforcement activities as an element of their conspiracy.”

The issue in Whren involved the exclusionary rule where officers have to make snap decisions in difficult situations. Here there were no snap decisions, Sease had everything planned out. Furthermore the deprivation of rights statutes require that the court consider the intent of the officer. To obtain a conviction the government must show that the defendant “acted with a corrupt, personal, and pecuniary purpose.” As a result the court upheld the conviction and Sease is going to spend the rest of his life in prison. ²

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputy Richard Wells pulled over Mark Anthony Young, an African-American probation officer, for failure to use his seat belt. He asked Young for his license, proof of insurance and registration. Young was not able to find his registration immediately so Wells asked him to continue looking while he went to his motor cycle to prepare the citation. When Young found the registration he got out of the truck and took the registration over to Wells. Wells ordered him back into his truck. Young refused to get into the truck and sat down on the curb. Wells, without warning, approached Young from the rear and pepper sprayed him. Young stood up and Well hit him a number of times with his baton.

Young sued Wells and the County of Los Angeles claiming excessive use of force and false imprisonment. The trial court granted Well’s motion for summary judgement. Young appealed. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the grant of summary judgement as to the false imprisonment claim but it granted the appeal as to the excessive use of force claim.

Considering the relatively minor offenses Young was accused of (failing to use his seat belt and interfering with a peace officer) and the lack of danger to the officer or others the appellate court found that the use of pepper spray and the baton was excessive.

On the other hand the court found that the arrest of Young was legitimate since he failed to comply with Wells’ order to get into the truck and therefore the summary judgement as to the false imprisonment was appropriate.

Today, we’ve got a quiz. How many violations of the Constitution can Berkeley County, South Carolina Sheriff Wayne DeWitt commit simultaneously? DeWit is responsible for the Berkeley County Detention Center, otherwise known as the county jail.

At least until recently all books except for paperback copies of the Christian Bible were banned.That means the Jewish Torah and the Muslim Koran are banned. Also banned are novels, health books, books on law, etc. This may even exclude the constitution and the Declaration of Independence from the jail. It even includes Christian literature other than the Bible.

I wonder if the reason books are excluded is that the sheriff and his deputies cannot read.

The policy was recently changed but only after the ACLU filed suit. The Federal government has now joined the suit.

My answer to the question is seven. (freedom of speech, the establishment clause, freedom of religion, right to a fair trial, cruel and unusual punishment, due process, and equal protection)

Wesley Lanham and Shawn Freeman were corrections officers at the Grant County, Kentucky, Detention Center on February 14, 2003 when a deputy brought “J. S” into the jail on a traffic charge. “J. S.” was 18 years old, six foot tall and weighed 125 pounds. He has blond highlights in his hair and on that Valentines Day holiday he wore a bright colored shirt and underwear with red hearts.

Sergeant Shawn Sydnor the supervising officer on duty at the jail told “J. S.” that he was cute and that he would make a good girlfriend for an inmate. He told Lanham and Freeman that “J. S.” needed to be scared. While pretrial arrestees were generally kept in the detox cells Sydnor asked Lanham and Freeman to find a cell in general population with convicted criminal serving their terms for “J. S.” Lanham found him a place in Cell 101 in 26 Hall. Twenty-six Hall was notorious for being a very rough place and for numerous incidents of sexual predatory behavior. Prior to placing “J. S.” in cell 101 Lanham and Freemen went to the cell and spoke with Bobby Wright. Lanham told Wright that they wanted the inmates to f-ck with “J. S.” Lanham and Freeman took “J. S.” to the cell and left hem there all night without checking in on him. Victor Zipp an inmate in the cell with a reputation for walking around nude raped “J. S.” and with help from other inmates roughed him up.

The next day Syndor, Lanham and Freeman agreed to report that they had placed “J. S.” in the general population because they needed to decontaminate the detox cells.

“J. S.” was released the next day and two days later his father took him to a doctor who confirmed the rape.

Lanham, Freeman and Sydnor were indicted. Sydnor plead guilty and cooperated with the prosecution. Lanham and Freeman went to trial and were convicted of conspiring to violate “J. S.’” civil rights and making a false report.

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the conviction. They found that while the judge should have excluded two jurors who could not promise to be impartial the defendants were not prejudiced since they used peremptory challenges to exclude the two. The Court did not find that the lack of two of the defense’s peremptory challenges affected the trial.

The defendants objected to limitations placed on their cross examination of Sydnor. But since they did not complain at trial they were limited to plain error analysis and since various appellate courts are divided on the issue any error is waived under the plain error analysis. “To obtain a conviction for conspiracy to violate civil rights under § 241, the government must prove that defendants knowingly agreed with another person to injure the victim in the exercise of a right guaranteed under the Constitution. . . The government also must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that there was specific intent to commit the deprivation.” The prosecution met the sufficiency of the evidence test. There was sufficient evidence that Syndor, Lapham and Freeman agreed to place “J. S.” in a cell knowing that he was likely to be abused and raped. To meet the sufficiency of the evidence test ir is only necessary that there be sufficient evidence that any rational trier of the fact could find the elements of the offense. Here there was sufficient evidence of both conspiracy and making a false report. As a result the conviction was upheld.