If the officer believed that the defendant's possession of the vehicle was wrongful he should have arrested the defendant for Unauthorized Use of a Vehicle or Larceny of the Vehicle.... Since the officer did not arrest the defendant for any crime in connection with her possession of the vehicle, the officer had no authority to remove the defendant from the vehicle and the charge of Obstructing Governmental Administration cannot stand.
the factual record is not in serious dispute...[,] [t]he ultimate legal determination whether ... a reasonable police officer should have known he acted unlawfully is a question of law better left for the court to decide.
finally determine claims of right separable from, and collateral to, rights asserted in the action, too important to be denied review and too independent of the cause itself to require that appellate consideration be deferred until the whole case is adjudicated.
The Court cannot say as a matter of law that the conduct of these officers did not violate the constitutionally guaranteed rights of the plaintiff. The record supports plaintiff's allegations that the defendants Backaus's and Gordon's conduct violated her Fourteenth Amendment rights not to be deprived of liberty or property without due process of law. Furthermore, the contours of those rights are sufficiently clear for a reasonable person to have understood them.
To establish [qualified] immunity, a defendant must demonstrate either that his conduct did not violate any of the plaintiff's ... clearly established rights, ... that would have been known to a reasonable person or that it was objectively reasonable for him to believe that his ... actions did not violate any of those clearly established rights.
We have recognized that it is inevitable that law enforcement officials will in some cases reasonably but mistakenly conclude that probable cause is present, and we have indicated that in such cases those officials—like other officials who act in ways they reasonably believe to be lawful—should not be held personally liable.
A person is guilty of obstructing governmental administration when he intentionally ... prevents or attempts to prevent a public servant from performing an official function, by means of intimidation, physical force or interference, or by means of any independently unlawful act ....
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