False arrest and battery charges dismissed
Police officers resonding to a report of a felony in progress found Jarrell Hart and Konrad Montgomery acting "furtively" in the parking lot of a Dearborn clothing store. They refused to leave their vehicle on demand, and ultimately police tasered them and then removed them from the vehicle and arrested them. Police found one weapon in the car and another on Montgomery. The men were charged with an unspecified crime, however, those charges were later dismissed by the court. The men then filed suit against the police, alleging false arrest, false imprisonment, battery and racial intimidation.
The Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of their claims against police, finding that there was probable cause to detain the men long enough to confirm their identity. "Probable cause" was characterized by the Court of Appeals judges as "any facts which would induce a fair-minded person of average intelligence and judgment to believe that the suspected person has committed a felony." The Court determined that the lower court had reached the appropriate conclusion, given the report of a felony in progress, the fact that the plaintiffs' clothing matched the description of the perpetrators, and the fact that they admitted acting somewhat suspiciously.