Consensual Police Encounter Transformed into Seizure

Consensual Police Encounter Transformed into Seizure

Robert Kaupp v Texas #02-5636, May 5, 2003 73 CrL 2042

The United States Supreme Court held that, even though a defendant fully cooperated with police officers and said “okay” to being transported to the police station for questioning, the defendant was under de facto arrest. The Court found that even an initially consensual encounter can be transformed into a seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. The detention here, which involved a 17-year-old boy being awakened late at night and taken to the police station in his underwear, was indistinguishable from a traditional arrest. Coupled with the officers’ statement, “we need to go and talk,” the circumstances presented no option but “to go,” concluded the Court. Case below: unpublished opinion, 2001 WL 619119 (TexApp).
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