Cozzi: Officer Lacked Even Arguable Probable Cause to Arrest Where He Ignored Easily Verifiable Exculpatory Evidence

Although a civil rights case, the Court's Fourth Amendment probable cause analysis should apply in criminal cases.  The Court emphasized that the officer unreasonably disregarded easily verifiable exculpatory evidence before arresting the plaintiff--specifically, the officer was told that the perpetrator had multiple tattoos, but the officer did not check to see if the plaintiff had matching tattoos before arresting him.  In addition, the evidence connecting him to the crime was otherwise very weak.  The officer received two tips that the plaintiff resembled the perpetrator, but one was anonymous, the officer knew that there was at least one other person who resembled the perpetrator, and the fact that one of the tipster's accurately identified the plaintiff's address and vehicle showed only that the tipster knew the plaintiff, not that he committed the crime.  Furthermore, while the officer found a plastic bag of pills on the plaintiff, that evidence did not match the items that the perpetrator stole, the officer did not conduct further investigation of that evidence, and the officer' search did not reveal any evidence linking the plaintiff to the crime.  The Court found that it did not need to decide whether the weak evidence possessed by the officer was alone sufficient because, by failing to verify the exculpatory information (the tattoos) before arresting him, the officer lacked even arguable probable cause under the totality of the circumstances.