What Is the Exact Point at Which a Person Is Under Arrest In Texas ?

Under Texas law, the point at which a person is under arrest is clear. "A person is arrested when he has been actually placed under restraint or taken into custody by an officer or person executing a warrant of arrest, or by an officer or person acting without a warrant." TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. ANN. art. 15.22 (Vernon 1994); see also Hawkins v. State, 758 S.W.2d 255, 259 (Tex. Crim. App.1988). "An arrest is complete when a person's liberty of movement is restricted or restrained." Chambers v. State, 866 S.W.2d 9, 19 (Tex. Crim. App.1993), cert. denied, 511 U.S. 1100, 114 S. Ct. 1871, 128 L. Ed. 2d 491 (1994). Conversely, an individual is not in custody or under arrest when he acts on the "invitation, urging or request of a police officer, and is not being forced, coerced or threatened." Id. When a defendant seeks to suppress evidence because of an illegal arrest that violates the federal or state constitution, the defendant bears the initial burden to rebut the presumption of proper police conduct. See Russell v. State, 717 S.W.2d 7, 9 (Tex. Crim. App.1986); Johnson v. State, 834 S.W.2d 121, 122 (Tex. App.-Houston [1st Dist.] 1992, pet. ref'd). The defendant meets this burden by proving that police seized him without a warrant. See Russell, 717 S.W.2d at 9. Once the defendant establishes that a warrantless search or seizure occurred, the burden shifts to the State either to produce evidence of a warrant or to prove the reasonableness of the search or seizure pursuant to one of the recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement. See id.