Q: Do I have a civil case against the deputy or the county for violating my rights?
I was approached by a deputy while standing in a hotel parking lot and charged with obstruction for failure to ID, arrested and put in jail in Georgia.
A: You do not have to provide ID unless you are driving a car or the officer has probable cause to suspect a crime was being committed. Thus, if the officer had probable cause to believe you were committing a crime, then any civil suit would fail. Further, suing police officers for conduct committed in the scope of their employment is difficult because of the defense of qualified immunity. Again, any possible civil claim would come down to the specific facts leading up to the officer approaching you and the facts of the interaction between you and the officer, and whether those facts amount to probable cause.
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