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US Vs Batallones
US Vs Batallones
Judgment affirmed.
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3.ID.; ID.—Two strangers were seen slipping about the market place in
one of the municipalities of these Islands and behaving generally in a
suspicious manner. A short time prior thereto a number of thefts and
robberies had been committed in the municipality. A woman who
observed the suspicious conduct of the strangers denounced them to
two policemen on duty at the market place. The policemen found the
strangers and demanded that they give an account of themselves and
produce their cedulas. This they were unable to do, but undertook to
support their claim that they were innocent persons, secret service
agents of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, acting in the performance
of their duty, by the production of certain documents in English,
which the policemen were unable to read. The policemen arrested the
strangers and brought them before the justice of the peace of the
municipality, who directed that they be detained in the municipal jail
until further orders. Held, That although it afterwards developed that
the strangers were what they claimed, secret service agents of the
Bureau of Internal Revenue, acting in the performance of their
duties, nevertheless, under all the circumstances as set out in the
opinion, the policemen are not criminally liable for their action in
making the arrests.
4.ID.; ID.—The mere fact that a citizen is unable to produce his cedula
upon demand does not in itself justify his arrest or detention without
a warrant.
5.ID.; ID.; ILLEGAL DETENTION.—Under all the circumstances of this case,
as set out in the opinion, the justice of the peace, who arbitrarily and
without investigation directed the detention of these internal revenue
agents, held to have been guilty of the crime of "detención arbitraria."
CARSON, J.:
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dro and Isaac Demo with the crime of illegal detention, committed
as follows:
"On or about December 5, 1909, in the municipality of
Cabuyao, Province of Laguna, the accused Jose Batallones, justice
of the peace, and the accused Maximo Cuadro and Isaac Demo,
policemen of the said municipality, all of them acting in such
capacities, did willfully, maliciously and criminally arrest
Apolonio Gumarang and Inocencio Reyes and detain them from
that night to the morning of the 6th of the said month and year,
although they had not committed any crime or misdemeanor to
warrant such detention and although the accused were not
authorized by any law or ordinance to detain said persons—in
violation of law."
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