Police Detention is Illegal When Based on Only One’s Resemblance to a Suspect.
It is well-established law that in order to justify an investigative stop or detention, police must have a “reasonable and articulable suspicion that some activity relating to a crime has taken place or is occurring or is about to occur and that the person is involved in that activity.”
In late November, 2010, Everett Robert Walker, age 19 and African-American, disembarked from a train in at the Santa Clara South light rail station in downtown San Jose. Santa Clara County Deputy Sheriff Frank Thrall observed Walker and suspected he was one of two young black men involved in a sexual battery at the same station a week earlier.
Thrall approached Walker and asked him to show proof that he had paid the fare. Walker showed him a valid ticket.
Thrall then told Walker that he resembled one of the suspects in a sexual battery investigation. He then asked Walker for identification. Walker provided identification, but it was an I.D. card belonging to someone else (someone at San Jose University). Thrall then arrested Walker and in searching him incident to an arrest, found cocaine base and marijuana.
The People then charged Walker with felony possession of cocaine base for sale or purchase (Health and Safety Code
