Juvenile arrested - held for 2 days without probable cause - is that legal ?

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas

My son, who is a juvenile, was arrested and held in a juvenile detention facility (over the weekend) and then release after a judge said there was no probable cause for his arrest.

Is the arresting police department guilty or liable in anyway for that ? Could they be sued ?

Just curious ....

Without further facts, no one can guess the answers to your questions.

seniorjudge said:

Without further facts, no one can guess the answers to your questions.

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I guess my general question is do police have to know what constitutes probable cause for an arrest or is it subjective and the courts give them leeway .. ?

jamman95 said:

I guess my general question is do police have to know what constitutes probable cause for an arrest or is it subjective and the courts give them leeway .. ?

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The arresting officer must be able to articulate the probable cause.

If the court doesn't buy it, that doesn't mean you can sue the cops.

As long as the Detention Hearing was held in a timely manner, you have no recourse. Since the hearing was in 2 days, and was held the next available business day after the weekend, it was considered to be a timely manner.

The police can continue to investigate this case, BTW. Your son could still face charges on this offense.

I'm a juvenile probation officer

There really isn't enough info given to answer your question completely.
I find it a little odd that he wasn't released to you but the Judge didn't agree with the PD version.
Did your son have representation?
What were the charges? and were they dropped? What is his history?
It's also possible that the officer had second thoughts and didn't give 100%, while he/she thought getting him off the street was the best thing. Just guesses, and I could do that all day.

I would recommend talking to a lawyer, or at the very least collecting all the paper work possible.

Yes, you can always sue, but**************

InsaneJane said:

There really isn't enough info given to answer your question completely.
I find it a little odd that he wasn't released to you but the Judge didn't agree with the PD version.
Did your son have representation?
What were the charges? and were they dropped? What is his history?
It's also possible that the officer had second thoughts and didn't give 100%, while he/she thought getting him off the street was the best thing. Just guesses, and I could do that all day.

I would recommend talking to a lawyer, or at the very least collecting all the paper work possible.

Yes, you can always sue, but**************

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He was arrested for possession of marijauna at school. He was with some friends who bought it, at some point they handed it to him and a few minutes later he gave it back to them and went to class.

Later they pulled him out of class, searched him, he did not have anything on him and arrested him on the charges that he bought and possessed it within 300 feet of a school ...

By the time they got to the juvenile detention facility the judge was gone for the weekend so he was going to have to stay there until the next business day (Monday) ..

He was not represented by anyone ... I suddenly got a call Sunday afternoon that the judge reviewed his charges and released him saying there was no probable cause for his arrest ... BTW this was his first offense ..

I was just trying to figure out what responsibilities the police have to arrest and charge someone to then find out there were no grounds to arrest them ...

The police said they could still pursue charges but usually they don't once a judge throws it out ..

I was too worked up yesterday when I posted this and I have no plans to pursue anything against them ...

This was really the best thing to happen to him and I'm hoping it's a wake up call ...

jamman95 said:

He was arrested for possession of marijauna at school. He was with some friends who bought it, at some point they handed it to him and a few minutes later he gave it back to them and went to class.

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As a juvenile probation officer, if I got a call from the PD saying they had arrested a child for having drugs at school, I would have him detained. One reason to detain a child is that he is a danger to himself or to the community. Allegedly having drugs at school would be a danger to the community, therefore a reason for the juvenile to be detained.

I just got back from the PD where I did the paperwork to have a kid detained until tomorrow on a runaway allegation. He says he wasn't a runaway, mom says he was. He'll go in front of the judge tomorrow, and he can try to convince the judge that there was no probable cause to believe he was a runaway.