Clarke asked Black if he had a problem, and Black responded by turning,
shaking his head, and waving Clarke off in a manner indicating
displeasure. The men did not have further interaction during the flight.
Before the plane took off, Clarke used his cell phone to call
Inspector Edward Bailey (“Bailey”), who was then employed by the
Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office and whose regular duties included
meeting Clarke at the Milwaukee airport when Clarke arrived home from
an out-of-state trip. Clarke informed Bailey of the confrontation with
Black, saying “it had happened again” and that he had had a
“confrontation with a passenger on an aircraft.” (Docket #17 at 4).2 Clarke
described Black to Bailey and told Bailey that the confrontation had not
been physical. Clarke did not think that it amounted to an offense for
which a citation or arrest was appropriate. Clarke nevertheless told Bailey
that he wanted deputies to conduct a “field interview” of Black when the
plane arrived in Milwaukee. According to Clarke’s undisputed version of
the facts, a “field interview” in the Sheriff’s parlance is a “voluntary
police-citizen encounter in which an officer obtains information from a
citizen and makes an identification of the citizen.” (Docket #17 at 4).3
Clarke states that he had several unprovoked confrontations with
members of the public at airports or on airplanes during his tenure as Milwaukee
County Sheriff. (Docket #18 at 1).
2
Black states in his proposed facts that “[t]he term ‘field interview’ means
a stop based on reasonable suspicion.” (Docket #27 at 5). This is inconsistent with
the defendants’ proposed facts and, as noted earlier, Black’s failure to properly
dispute the defendants’ proposed facts constrains this Court to accept the
defendants’ account. Further, even if Black had properly disputed this fact, it
would not change the Court’s analysis, as Fourth Amendment claims are
governed by an objective standard. See Whren v. United States, 517 U.S. 806, 813
(1996) (“Subjective intentions play no role in ordinary, probable-cause Fourth
3
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Case 2:17-cv-00156-JPS Filed 01/05/18 Page 4 of 27 Document 39