State v. CARACOGLIA

38 A.3d 226, 134 Conn. App. 175, 2012 WL 744028, 2012 Conn. App. LEXIS 119
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedMarch 13, 2012
DocketAC 32699
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 38 A.3d 226 (State v. CARACOGLIA) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. CARACOGLIA, 38 A.3d 226, 134 Conn. App. 175, 2012 WL 744028, 2012 Conn. App. LEXIS 119 (Colo. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

Opinion

FLYNN, J.

The self-represented defendant, Salvatore Caracoglia, appeals from the judgment of conviction of two counts of the infraction of creating a public disturbance in violation of General Statutes § 53a-181a (a) (1) and (2), respectively. He was convicted after a court trial and has appealed on grounds that: (1) both subdivisions of the statute are facially vague, (2) the court improperly overruled the defendant’s objection to an amendment to the information, (3) the court improperly overruled a defense “objection” to the state’s failure to produce a tape recording of a 911 emergency telephone call made in connection with the incident that gave rise to the charges, (4) the defendant improperly was denied the right to a trial by jury, (5) the court denied the defendant’s right to compulsory process to require the attendance of certain witnesses in his defense case and (6) the evidence did not suffice to establish the required mens rea for the commission of the infractions. We affirm the judgment of the trial court.

The record reveals the following procedural history and facts, which the trial court reasonably could have found. The Middletown Chamber of Commerce maintains a kiosk near 386 Main Street in Middletown where the public can post flyers and other paperwork to publicize job openings, activities and events taking place *178 throughout the town. Sometime between noon and 12:30 p.m. on October 24,2009, the defendant was using a large hammer stapler to staple flyers onto the kiosk in such a manner as to cover and to obscure the other business and activity flyers already in place. By the time the defendant had covered at least two rows of flyers, Elizabeth Santangelo (Mrs. Santangelo), a member of the Chamber of Commerce, had exited 386 Main Street and began removing the defendant’s flyers out of concern that they were obstructing the view of the flyers that were underneath. Mrs. Santangelo was not positioned near the defendant, and the defendant had his back toward her when she began removing the flyers. At no point during her subsequent interaction with the defendant did Mrs. Santangelo become physical or touch him.

The defendant confronted Mrs. Santangelo once he realized that she was removing his flyers. Mrs. San-tangelo explained that the kiosk was maintained by the local Chamber of Commerce and that the defendant could not obstruct the other flyers. The defendant insisted that he had a right to post his flyers and yelled at Mrs. Santangelo in a loud manner. As Mrs. Santangelo continued her attempt to converse with the defendant, the defendant grabbed her shirt, which prompted her to yell: “Don’t touch me.” The defendant took a step toward Mrs. Santangelo and raised the hammer stapler over his head in a threatening manner. 1 Mrs. Santangelo stated, “go ahead hit me,” to which the defendant responded, “I don’t have to hit you,” adding that he “could punch [her] and knock [her] down.” Mrs. San-tangelo felt threatened and terrorized.

*179 Officer Brian White of the Middletown police department was dispatched to the scene and arrived at approximately 12:30 p.m. Once Mrs. Santangelo was aware of the officer’s presence, she recommenced the removal of the defendant’s obstructive flyers from the kiosk. The defendant, acting in an angry and agitated state, as witnessed by Officer White, then approached Mrs. Santangelo and struck her on the right forearm. The defendant acknowledged that he made physical contact with Mrs. Santangelo, but claimed that he only “used [his] hand to move her hand” away from the flyers. The defendant also admitted to raising the hammer stapler over his head and acknowledged placing it into his vehicle prior to the arrival of the police. After a court trial, the court, Vitale, J., rendered a judgment of conviction on July 28, 2010, of two counts of the infraction of creating a public disturbance in violation of § 53a-181a (a) (1) and (2), respectively. This appeal followed.

I

We first address the defendant’s facial vagueness claim. There are two categories of impermissible vagueness of statutes. The first is facial vagueness in which no matter what the factual setting, the challenged legislative enactment is so lacking in standards and so amorphous as to give a person subject to it no real notice of what it proscribes so that conduct can be conformed to it. The second category is vagueness as applied to a particular factual situation. The defendant’s claim is that § 53a-181a (a) (1) and (2), creating infractions of creating a public disturbance, are vague and that they impinged on his first amendment rights. We therefore analyze the claim as one of unconstitutional facial vagueness and reject his contention in reliance on our Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Indrisano, 228 Conn. 795, 801, 804, 640 A.2d 986 (1994), in which the court determined in examining a similar claim made *180 in relation to a similar statute that the language of the statute was not facially vague.

“[A] penal statute [must] define [a] criminal offense with sufficient definiteness that ordinary people can understand what conduct is prohibited and in a manner that does not encourage arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement. . . . [This concept] embodies two central precepts: the right to fair warning of the effect of a governing statute or regulation and the guarantee against standardless law enforcement. . . . [T]he [most] important aspect of the vagueness doctrine is not actual notice . . . but . . . the requirement that a legislature establish minimal guidelines to govern law enforcement. . . . Thus, [i]n order to surmount a vagueness challenge, a statute [must] afford a person of ordinary intelligence a reasonable opportunity to know what is permitted or prohibited . . . and must not impermissibly [delegate] basic policy matters to policemen, judges, and juries for resolution on an ad hoc and subjective basis, with the attendant dangers of arbitrary and discriminatory application. . . . Finally, [i]f the meaning of a statute can be fairly ascertained [the] statute will not be void for vagueness . . . for [i]n most English words and phrases there link uncertainties. . . . [T]he statute must contain some core meaning within which the defendant’s actions clearly fall. . . . References to judicial opinions involving the statute, the common law, legal dictionaries, or treatises may be necessary to ascertain a statute’s meaning to determine if it gives fair warning. . . .

“For statutes that do not implicate the especially sensitive concerns embodied in the first amendment, we determine the constitutionality of a statute under attack for vagueness by considering its applicability to the particular facts at issue. . . . [T]o prevail on his claim, the defendant must demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that the statute, as applied to him, *181 deprived him of adequate notice of what conduct the statute proscribed or that he fell victim to arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.” (Internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Stephens, 301 Conn. 791, 801-802,

Related

State v. Sidiropoulos
Connecticut Appellate Court, 2026
State v. Collymore
334 Conn. 431 (Supreme Court of Connecticut, 2020)
State v. Carey
202 A.3d 1067 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2019)
Miller v. Dept. of Agriculture
145 A.3d 393 (Connecticut Appellate Court, 2016)
State v. Phillips
Connecticut Appellate Court, 2015

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
38 A.3d 226, 134 Conn. App. 175, 2012 WL 744028, 2012 Conn. App. LEXIS 119, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-caracoglia-connappct-2012.