City of St. Louis v. Goldman

467 S.W.2d 99, 1971 Mo. App. LEXIS 710
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 23, 1971
Docket33885
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 467 S.W.2d 99 (City of St. Louis v. Goldman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of St. Louis v. Goldman, 467 S.W.2d 99, 1971 Mo. App. LEXIS 710 (Mo. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

DOWD, Judge.

Defendant Cecilia Goldman was found by the City Court of St. Louis to have violated the City’s ordinance against disturbing the peace. Upon appeal to the St. Louis Court of Criminal Correction in a jury-waived case, she was again found guilty of violating the City’s peace disturbance ordinance and fined $500. She appeals. This appeal comes to us by transfer from the Supreme Court.

On appeal, the defendant challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction and the form and sufficiency of the information.

The information under attack reads as follows: “On information, the undersigned City Counselor within and for St. Louis, Missouri, complains and informs the Court that on or about the 4th day of December, 1968, within the corporate limits of St. Louis, Missouri, at or near 602 Locust, above-named defendant did then and there unlawfully disturb the peace by noisy, riotous, and disorderly conduct, in a public place, and did then and there use indecent, lewd, and profane language, in violation of Section 762.030 and 1.100 of Ordinance 50549, of the Revised Ordinances of 1960 of said City.”

The ordinance under which defendant was convicted reads as follows:

“762.030. Public disturbance of the peace. — No person shall disturb the peace of others by noisy, riotous, or disorderly conduct, nor by violent, tumultous, offensive or obstreperous conduct or carriage, nor by loud or unusual noises, nor by unseemly, profane, obscene, indecent, lewd or offensive language, calculated to provoke a breach of the peace, nor by assaulting, striking or fighting any other person in any park, street, alley, highway, thoroughfare, public place, or public resort.”

On the evening of December 4, 1968 at about 7:30 p. m. a security guard for a downtown department store was called to one of the store’s several entrances located at 6th and Locust. This entrance consisted of two revolving doors flanked by two swinging doors. He found the defendant with arms outstretched, with each hand handcuffed to a revolving door. He tried to unlock the handcuffs but was unable to get the key in the lock because there was some kind of material in the lock. He then called the police. People attempting to enter the store had to use the side doors and employees of the store were stationed at this exit to divert customers from exiting through the revolving doors to keep from injuring the defendant. The revolving doors are the doors regularly used by the customers. The side doors are used as exit doors when the revolving doors are not in order and also used as fire exits.

Two police officers were stationed nearby to watch a group of about thirty people, who were “picketing in protest of a white Christmas.” About 5 or 6 minutes after the picketing started, the defendant “who had come to picket” was seen handcuffed to the two revolving doors. No one saw her actually being handcuffed to the doors. There was a large number of Christmas shoppers going in and out of the store.

*102 The defendant was asked by a representative of the store to remove herself from the doors and “she just stood mute don’t say anything.” Defendant was placed under arrest. A police officer also unsuccessfully tried to unlock the handcuffs but his key wouldn’t work because of this substance in the mechanism of the lock. He sent for a bolt cutter and with it he cut the handcuffs. A crowd had gathered and traffic was impeded.

The following testimony from a police officer was developed without objection on direct examination:

“Q All right officer was there a disturbance, was a crowd gathered outside the store ?
“A Yes, sir.
“Q They were watching this spectacle?
“A Yes, sir.
“Q * * * Was pedestrian traffic was it stopped watching this?
“A Yes, sir.”

The police officer estimated the crowd at from 40 to SO people.

Defendant did not testify at the trial.

First, the sufficiency of the evidence to support the conviction. She is charged with disturbing the peace on December 4, 1968 at 602 Locust Street in the City of St. Louis “by noisy, riotous, and disorderly conduct, in a public place, and did then and there use indecent, lewd, and profane language, * * While it is true that the evidence showed that the defendant was not noisy (she remained mute throughout the incident) and did not use improper language, we believe the evidence was sufficient to support a conviction of a city ordinance for peace disturbance by disorderly conduct. Missouri courts have not specifically defined “disturbing the peace.” The word “disturb” has been equated with “interference,” that is, “ ‘to interfere with in the lawful enjoyment of a right.’ ” McCleary v. Bratton, Mo.App., 307 S.W.2d 722 [2], “Peace” was defined in City of Louisiana v. Bottoms, Mo.App., 300 S.W. 316 [3-5], as “the tranquility enjoyed by the citizens of a municipality or community, where good order, which is the natural right of all persons in political society, reigns among its citizens.”

Here the evidence shows that the defendant was one of 30 pickets who came to the entrance of a department store during the Christmas shopping season to picket “in protest of a white Christmas.” There was a large crowd of Christmas shoppers going in and out of the store. About five minutes after the picketing began, defendant was seen handcuffed to two revolving doors. It can be inferred from the evidence that the defendant either handcuffed herself to the revolving doors or cooperated in the handcuffing of herself to these doors. A substance was in the lock of the handcuffs which prevented them from being opened with a key. The store stationed employees to divert customers to the side doors so that the defendant would not be injured. The side doors were used as fire exits and when the revolving doors were not in use. “She just stood mute” when asked by a store employee to remove herself. It was necessary for the police officer to send for a bolt cutter to sever the handcuffs from the doors. A crowd of 40 or 50 people had gathered to watch the spectacle and traffic was impeded. A police officer answered affirmatively a question of whether there was a disturbance and whether a crowd gathered at the store. We do not believe that the defendant can remain mute and thereby escape the legal consequence of actions which amount to disorderly conduct. With this evidence, the City has met its burden of proving a peace disturbance by disorderly conduct.

To make a case of disturbing the peace, it is unnecessary to have testimony from any witness specifically stating that his peace was disturbed; that *103 would be a conclusion since whether there was a disturbance of the peace is “the real gravamen of the charge” and an issue for the jury. City of De Soto v. Hunter, 145 Mo.App. 430, 122 S.W. 1092. Here, in this jury-waived trial, this issue was for the experienced trial judge. The evidence supported his conclusion.

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Related

Kansas City v. LaRose
524 S.W.2d 112 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1975)
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518 S.W.2d 202 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1974)
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502 S.W.2d 411 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1973)
City of St. Louis v. Eskridge
486 S.W.2d 648 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1972)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
467 S.W.2d 99, 1971 Mo. App. LEXIS 710, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-st-louis-v-goldman-moctapp-1971.