Santos

I.

INTRODUCTION

After a series of thefts from residents at a residential community for the elderly called Cypress Court, police advised Cypress Court’s management to install video cameras and place bait money in some of the residents’ apartments, in an attempt to catch the thief. After doing so, on July 18, 2012, Cypress Court’s resident relations director, defendant Tamara Gutierrez, determined that bait money that had been planted in a box in an elderly person’s apartment had been removed. That same day, Gutierrez and Cypress Court’s executive director, appellant Ricky Lansford, reviewed surveillance video that potentially implicated respondent Maria Delaluz Santos, who worked at Cypress Court as a resident assistant. Lansford and Gutierrez decided to call police.

Within a couple of hours, police arrived at Cypress Court and reviewed the video. After viewing the video, the police interviewed and searched Santos. Santos denied committing the theft and was not found to be in possession of the bait money. While the police were at Cypress Court, Lansford signed a form provided to him by a police officer, which effectuated a citizen’s arrest of Santos. The officer gave…