State v. Andrews
This text of 2022 Ohio 3802 (State v. Andrews) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.
Opinion
[Cite as State v. Andrews, 2022-Ohio-3802.]
IN THE COURT OF APPEALS FIRST APPELLATE DISTRICT OF OHIO HAMILTON COUNTY, OHIO
STATE OF OHIO, : APPEAL NO. C-210635 TRIAL NO. 21CRB-5434 Plaintiff-Appellee, :
vs. : O P I N I O N. SIOBHAN ANDREWS, :
Defendant-Appellant. :
Criminal Appeal From: Hamilton County Municipal Court
Judgment Appealed From Is: Reversed and Appellant Discharged
Date of Judgment Entry on Appeal: October 26, 2022
Emily Smart Woerner, Interim City Solicitor, William T. Horsley, City Prosecutor, and Tyler Liston, Assistant City Prosecutor, for Plaintiff-Appellee,
Jonathan P. Dameron, for Defendant-Appellant. OHIO FIRST DISTRICT COURT OF APPEALS
MYERS, Presiding Judge.
{¶1} Following a bench trial on a charge of telecommunications harassment,
the trial court convicted defendant-appellant Siobhan Andrews of disorderly conduct, purportedly as a lesser-included offense. In two assignments of error, Andrews argues that her conviction must be reversed. Because Andrews’s conviction was based upon
insufficient evidence, we sustain her first assignment of error, reverse the judgment of the trial court, and discharge Andrews from further prosecution. Our disposition of Andrews’s first assignment of error renders moot her second assignment of error and
we decline to address it. See App.R. 12(A)(1)(c).
Background {¶2} At trial, Massiach Hayward testified that beginning in February 2021,
he told Andrews, a former friend, that he did not want to speak to her and that she should not contact him. In August 2021, he again told Andrews not to contact him,
and he blocked her on Facebook because “she started saying that I was a rapist.” He
testified that he was at a bar in October 2021 when Andrews began cursing and screaming at him, so he left the bar.
{¶3} About a week later, on October 22, 2021, Andrews tried to speak to Hayward when they were at a bar, but he told her to leave him alone. Hayward said that one of Andrews’s friends assaulted him and was arrested by police. {¶4} After Hayward got home that night, Andrews tried to call him eight times within a few minutes, but Hayward did not answer. Andrews also posted on her Facebook page: “RAPIST!!!!! Massiach Hayward * * * Ask Montgomery Teas[.]” Someone identified as Da Yehster replied, “Whoa[.]”
{¶5} Then Andrews and Da Yehster engaged in the following exchange: [ANDREWS]: Da Yehster[,] done playing. I want to fight [DA YEHSTER]: * * * so he raped shorty? I know that’s wat us said I just need clarity
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[ANDREWS]: Da Yehster[,] attempted to. Ripped her shirt. Hold on I have proof. Plus tried to jump my best friend tonight. Got beat up then
the cops showed up and he’s the one filing assault charges. I want to fight {¶6} Hayward testified that someone sent him Andrews’s posts because he
had previously blocked her on Facebook. When he was asked how Andrews’s posts and attempted contacts made him feel, Hayward replied: Threatened and that my life was in jeopardy. I had just been assaulted
that night from her best friend. [Andrews] was calling me * * *. And on
the Facebook post she said that I was a rapist. She put my name on there and said that she wanted to fight me after I had already been
assaulted that night.
Hayward testified that what Andrews posted about him was not true. {¶7} In her defense, Andrews testified that Hayward had never told her not
to call him. She admitted that she tried to call him eight times in a row that night
because he had just assaulted her friend. She testified that she posted on Facebook that Hayward was a rapist to warn the public that “there was an active rapist and
domestic violence person that was on the loose and that was Mr. Hayward.” She said that her purpose in making the calls and in posting on Facebook was not to harass Hayward. She testified that her “I want to fight” remarks on her Facebook page stemmed from her feeling frustration, aggravation, and a need for clarity about the accusations that had been made against Hayward, her former friend. Andrews testified that her Facebook posts were made on her own page and that she did not send
them or message them to Hayward or post them on his Facebook page. She admitted that she knew that her posts “would get back to him.” {¶8} The trial court considered the three telecommunications by Andrews, which included the eight telephone calls in a row, the Facebook post stating the word “rapist” followed by Hayward’s name, and the two references in her Facebook posts to
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“I want to fight.” The court determined that none of them rose to the level of telecommunications harassment under R.C. 2917.21(B)(1), which prohibits a person
from making a telecommunication “with purpose to abuse, threaten, or harass another person.” In addressing the “I want to fight” posts, the court noted that the offense of telecommunications harassment required proof that the defendant’s specific purpose
is to abuse, threaten, or harass. The court said: Keeping in mind that the court has to find guilt beyond a reasonable doubt and that the threat must be made with a specific purpose, my
interpretation of a general statement of I want to fight without
something more specific in this case doesn’t rise to the level of threatening.
{¶9} The court found Andrews not guilty of telecommunications harassment
but found her guilty of disorderly conduct in violation of R.C. 2917.11(A)(1), purportedly as a lesser-included offense. R.C. 2917.11(A)(1) provides: “No person shall
recklessly cause inconvenience, annoyance, or alarm to another by * * * [e]ngaging in
fighting, threatening harm to persons or property, or in violent or turbulent behavior.” The court found that Andrews acted recklessly and that she caused inconvenience,
annoyance, or alarm by threatening harm to persons or property.
Sufficiency of the Evidence {¶10} In her first assignment of error, Andrews challenges the sufficiency of the evidence supporting her conviction for disorderly conduct in violation of R.C. 2917.11(A)(1). In reviewing the sufficiency of the evidence, we must determine whether, “after viewing the evidence in a light most favorable to the prosecution, any
rational trier of fact could have found the essential elements of the crime proven beyond a reasonable doubt.” State v. Walker, 150 Ohio St.3d 409, 2016-Ohio-8295, 82 N.E.3d 1124, ¶ 12, quoting State v. Jenks, 61 Ohio St.3d 259, 574 N.E.2d 492 (1991),
paragraph two of the syllabus.
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{¶11} Andrews challenges the trial court’s finding that her Facebook posts stating “I want to fight” constituted a threat of harm to persons or property, as required
for disorderly conduct under R.C. 2917.11(A)(1). As she points out, she did not say she wanted to fight Hayward or anyone else, and she did not send the posts to him. Even considering the context of her posts that identified Hayward as a person that had
allegedly assaulted two of her friends, her multiple calls to him within minutes, and her admission that she knew the posts would “get back to” Hayward, we cannot say that Andrews threatened harm to Hayward. And the trial court did not think so either
because it stated, “[M]y interpretation of a general statement of I want to fight without
something more specific in this case doesn’t rise to the level of threatening.” {¶12} Because we agree with the trial court that Andrews’s “I want to fight” posts on Facebook did not “rise to the level of threatening,” we hold that the essential
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2022 Ohio 3802, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-andrews-ohioctapp-2022.