Commonwealth v. Kelly

758 A.2d 1284, 2000 Pa. Super. 254, 2000 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2459
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 28, 2000
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 758 A.2d 1284 (Commonwealth v. Kelly) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Kelly, 758 A.2d 1284, 2000 Pa. Super. 254, 2000 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2459 (Pa. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinions

LALLY-GREEN, J.:

¶ 1 Appellant, Linda C. Kelly, appeals the judgment of sentence of a $25.00 fine and costs imposed following her summary conviction of disorderly conduct for using obscene language.1 We reverse.

¶ 2 The facts, as found by the trial court, are as follows.

Appellant, while driving a car, came upon a work area on a public highway. A borough street department employee approached her vehicle when it appeared that she was not responding to directions. The worker asked her what she intended to do whereupon appellant said, “Fuck you, asshole” and gave the worker the “finger”.

Trial Court Opinion, 7/23/99, at 2. On April 29, 1998, Appellant was issued a citation for disorderly conduct, on the basis of using obscene language and making an obscene gesture. On August 10, 1998, a district justice adjudicated Appellant guilty of disorderly conduct and sentenced Appellant to a $25.00 fine and costs.

¶ 3 On June 29, 1999, after a summary appeal hearing, the trial court found Appellant guilty of disorderly conduct and imposed the same fine and costs. This appeal followed.

¶ 4 Appellant raises three issues on appeal: •

1) Whether the Defendant used obscene language or made an obscene gesture, either of which is required under § 5503(a)(3) prosecutions?
2) Whether the Defendant used “fighting” words sufficient to constitute a [1286]*1286violation of the disorderly conduct provisions of the Crimes Code?
3) Whether the evidence presented was sufficient as a matter of law to convict the Defendant of the crime actually lodged against her?

Appellant’s Brief at 3.

¶ 5 Although Appellant raises three issues in her Statement of Questions Involved, Appellant states, in the argument portion of her brief, that “the question argued is whether the language used and the gesture described are obscene.” Appellant’s Brief at 6. Appellant admits using the language and making the gesture described but argues they are not obscene. Id. at 8.

¶ 6 We will, thus, address whether “the language used and the gesture described are obscene” under 18 Pa.C.S. § 5503(a)(3) in the circumstances of this ease. This Court must view the evidence and all reasonable inferences to be drawn from the evidence in the light most favorable to the Commonwealth as verdict winner and determine if the evidence was sufficient to enable the fact-finder to establish all the elements of the offense. Commonwealth v. Marks, 704 A.2d 1095, 1098 (Pa.Super.1997), appeal denied, 555 Pa. 687, 722 A.2d 1056 (1998).

¶ 7 Appellant’s case involves a conviction under 18 Pa.C.S. § 5503(a)(3). Section 5503(a) provides as follows:

Offense defined.—A person is guilty of disorderly conduct if, with intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof, he:
(1) engages in fighting or threatening, or in violent or tumultuous behavior;
(2) makes unreasonable noise;
(3) uses obscene language, or makes an obscene gesture;
(4) creates a hazardous or physically offensive condition by any act which serves no legitimate purpose of the actor.

18 Pa.C.S. § 5503(a).

¶ 8 The first inquiry is what is the definition of “obscene” for purposes of 18 Pa.C.S. § 5503(a)(3). This Court has held that, for purposes of a disorderly conduct statute prohibiting the use of obscene language, language is obscene if it meets the test set forth in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 93 S.Ct. 2607, 37 L.Ed.2d 419 (1973):

(a) whether “the average person, applying contemporary community standards” would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest,
(b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and (c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Commonwealth v. Bryner, 438 Pa.Super. 473, 652 A.2d 909, 912 (1995) In Bryner, our Court held that the phrase “go to hell Betsy” was not obscene. Thus, we use the Bryner test to determine whether words and gestures are obscene for purposes of 18 Pa.C.S. § 5503(a)(3).

¶ 9 Our next inquiry is whether the “F-word” and the gesture are obscene within the meaning of 18 Pa.C.S. § 5503(a)(3). While we have found no jurisprudence directly on point, we have found cases that provide guidance as to the proper resolution of this case, e.g., Commonwealth v. Hock, 556 Pa. 409, 728 A.2d 943 (1999); Commonwealth v. Fenton, 750 A.2d 863, 2000 Pa.Super. 102; and Brockway v. Shepherd, 942 F.Supp. 1012 (M.D.Pa.1996).

¶ 10 Our Supreme Court addressed Section 5503(a)(1) (and not Section 5503(a)(3)) recently in Commonwealth v. Hock, 556 Pa. 409, 728 A.2d 943 (1999). There, a person directed a profane remark, “F— you, asshole,” at a police officer. The Court concluded that the utterance was not sufficient to support a conviction of [1287]*1287disorderly conduct under Section 5503(a)(1) because the utterance did not amount to “fighting words” under 18 Pa. C.S. § 5503(a)(1). The Court concluded that, under the facts of the case, Hock’s comment did not risk an immediate breach of the peace. Hock, 728 A.2d at 946.

¶ 11 The Court then said the following: Moreover, the offense of disorderly conduct is not intended as a catchall for every act which annoys or disturbs people; it is not to be used as a dragnet for all the irritations which breed in the ferment of a community. It has a specific purpose; it has a definite objective, it is intended to preserve the public peace; it has thus a limited periphery beyond which the prosecuting authorities have no right to transgress any more that the alleged criminal has the right to operate within its clearly outlined circumference.

Id. at 947.

¶ 12 While Justice Castille dissented in Hock, he commented that:

Appellant’s words, while certainly obscene according to common parlance, do not fit the definition of “obscene” under Section 5503(a)(3) of the Disorderly Conduct Statute.... [Language is obscene if it meets the test set forth in Miller

Id. at 947, n. 1.

¶ 13 We recently addressed the use of an allegedly obscene word in the context of harassment by communication, 18 Pa. C.S.A. 5504(a), in Commonwealth v. Fenton, 750 A.2d 863, 2000 Pa.Super. 102.

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Bluebook (online)
758 A.2d 1284, 2000 Pa. Super. 254, 2000 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2459, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-kelly-pasuperct-2000.