Flowers v. Fiore
United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit
359 F.3d 24 (2004)
After a resident reported a fight and a threat that two armed men might come shoot him, Officer Fiore (defendant) and two colleagues stopped Flowers (plaintiff), who was driving a car matching the vague description, ordered him at gunpoint to exit and walk backward with hands raised, then frisked, handcuffed, and placed him in a patrol car while officers searched his vehicle for weapons; finding nothing, officers explained the report and released Flowers roughly 15 minutes after the stop began, without ever moving him to a station or reading him Miranda rights. Flowers sued the officers and the town under 42 U.S.C. section 1983 and state law, and the district court granted the defendants summary judgment.
Whether a Terry stop and detention rises to the level of a de facto arrest where a police officer goes beyond what is necessary in light of the circumstances that prompted the stop or developed during its course, relocates the suspect to a station house or detention facility, or reads the suspect his Miranda rights.