Do you have to do what the cops tell you to do? That’s a really interesting question.
Sally was a waitress, like at Dennys. She had just gone through a breakup and found herself looking for a place to live. Her income was low and credit wasn’t that good and she had been turned down at several apartments. She was getting pretty desperate.
She was waiting tables one evening and a nice middle age guy, call him Ken, struck up a casual conversation with her. She mentioned to Ken that she was having a hard time finding an apartment. Ken said that he and his wife had an apartment that was vacant that they could rent to her.
The next morning, Ken showed her the apartment. It was a perfect solution for her. So they settled on the amount of rent, and a couple of days later, they met at the apartment. He had prepared a standard lease. She gave him the first month’s rent and a deposit, signed a 6-month lease, and he signed it on behalf of himself and his wife. The lease required her to pay the rent to Ken’s wife at a specified address. He gave her the keys and turned the place over to her. Over the next two weeks, she got all of her stuff out of storage and settled in. Putting up curtains and decorating. It looked like things were going to be okay.
One day, about a month later, she got a knock on the door. It was Ken’s wife. She demanded to know who Sally was and what she was doing in “her” apartment. Sally explained and showed her a copy of the lease. Ken’s wife told Sally that she and Ken were separated and going through a divorce, that the apartment belonged to her, and that Ken had no authority to lease the property to anyone. Sally said, well, she had a lease and didn’t have anywhere to go. Ken’s wife called her a trespasser and demanded that she leave immediately. Sally said she would have to consult a lawyer.
About an hour later, Ken’s wife returned with two city cops, one male and one female. The female cop did all of the talking. She told Sally that she had no right to be there, and that she could be arrested for “trespassing.” Sally disagreed and said she thought it was a civil matter for the courts. The cops disagreed, and gave her a clear ultimatum: They would be back is three days. If Sally was still in the apartment, she would be arrested.
Sally was scared to death and heartbroken. Her friends told her not to worry, that the cops couldn’t arrest her because she had a lease. But that’s not what the cops said. She panicked and got a couple of guys to help her move her stuff back to storage and managed to get out before the cops came back.
I couldn’t resist. I had to help her. She didn’t have any money, but I couldn’t let this one stand. So I talked one of my lawyer brothers into teaming up with me to sue Ken, his wife, and the cops for a wrongful eviction and other stuff. The next few months were spent in filing and counter-filing and discovery and pretrial conferences and all that. During that process, I got taken aside three separate times by judges to confidentially inform me that no judge in that county was going to rule against the police. But I couldn’t’ help myself. The case was so strong.
So we got to trial. It went very well. My case was simple and clear and air tight and the facts were not actually in dispute. The cops admitted everything; including admitting that they would have arrested her if she had still been there. How could I lose? We all rested our cases. The judge retired to deliberate a few minutes and returned.
His verdict? Well, he ruled, the facts were clear and I was absolutely correct on the law. In fact I was so correct that there could not even be any doubt about it: The cops had no authority whatever to intervene at all, and certainly had no right to threaten arrest. I was so correct that any reasonable person should know the cops had no authority. If fact, Sally had to know it. So when she left, it was really voluntary, actually an abandonment. Sorry, you lose.
So what do you do if a cop gives you an unlawful order? I don’t know. It’s not easy. You may actually have to abandon your rights to avoid being arrested, or worse.
I speculate what might have been if Sally had seen me before she moved out. I feel pretty certain that I could have gone over the cops’ heads and prevented them from throwing her out. Maybe. You can’t live with a lawyer sitting on your shoulder, but sometimes, if you get to one early enough, things can go your way. That’s another story.