State v. Fisk

485 P.2d 81, 79 Wash. 2d 318, 1971 Wash. LEXIS 600
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedMay 20, 1971
DocketNos. 40816, 40817
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 485 P.2d 81 (State v. Fisk) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Fisk, 485 P.2d 81, 79 Wash. 2d 318, 1971 Wash. LEXIS 600 (Wash. 1971).

Opinion

Hamilton, C.J.

These are consolidated cases. Both defendants appeal from a conviction under RCW 9.27.070.1 [319]*319Defendant Adkins additionally appeals from a conviction of vagrancy as defined in RCW 9.87.010(13).2

The charges from which the convictions flow arose as a result of a “sit-in” type gathering of persons in the administration building of Olympic Community College in Brem-erton, Washington. The avowed purpose of the assemblage was to meet with the college president, Dr. J. D. Park, and protest the expulsion of defendant Adkins from the college for disciplinary reasons.

The group, consisting of defendants and 65 or more other persons, mostly students of the college, assembled in the administration building about 2 p.m., April 24,1968. At that time they were informed that the president was not in his office and it was not known for certain when he would return. Part of the group remained in the president’s outer office, and the remainder repaired to an adjacent corridor. At the end of the business day, the group in the office joined the others in the hall. The entire group, with some fluctuation in numbers, remained in the building throughout the night of April 24 and the day of April 25, sleeping in sleeping bags, eating, studying, talking, listening to radios and phonographs, and playing musical instruments. Due to the confusion, crowding, noise, and paraphernalia in the corridor ingress and egress to offices off the corridor was difficult and the daily work of the administrative staff was substantially impaired.

The president of the school was advised of the situation, and conferred with legal counsel in Olympia, Washington, [320]*320during April 25. At 7:30 p.m. that evening, he met with the board of trustees of the college as well as with members of his staff. It was decided that the president would request the assemblage to leave the building and if they refused the police would be called in.

At 9:30 p.m., the official closing time of the administration building, the president, the vice-president, the Bremer-ton Chief of Police, and other public officials appeared before the group. The president addressed the group, advising them that the official closing time for the building had come and requested that they leave the premises. The group caucused and, with some exceptions, decided to remain until their grievances had been resolved.

Thereafter, the chief of police advised the group that the gathering was being declared an unlawful assembly and if they persisted in remaining in the building they would be arrested and charged with various offenses. A period of time was provided for additional discussion, during which defendants Fisk and Adkins requested the group to remain which, with some exceptions, the participants undertook to do'. At 10:20 p.m., arrests commenced and proceeded peacefully.

In all 67 persons were arrested and charged. Of these 2 were under 18 years of age and were processed as juveniles; 12 or 13 pleaded guilty and received deferred sentences; 4 nonstudents, charged with vagrancy, failed to appear in court resulting in the issuance of bench warrants; charges against 2 were dropped for appropriate reasons; and the remainder agreed to be bound by the joint trial of 6 defendants, including Fisk and Adkins, in- district court.

The six defendants were charged with disturbing a school meeting, unlawful assembly, and failure to .disperse from an unlawful meeting, in violation of RCW 28A.87.060,3 [321]*3219.27.060,4 and 9.27.070, respectively. In addition, defendant Adkins, being a nonstudent as a result of his expulsion, was charged with vagrancy under RCW 9.87.010 (13).

In district court, the defendants were tried before a jury. The jury acquitted them of the offenses of disturbing a school meeting and unlawful assembly and found them guilty of the offense of failing to disperse from an unlawful meeting. The jury also found defendant Adkins guilty of the vagrancy charge.

In the district court, defendants Fisk and Adkins moved for an arrest of judgment contending that the verdicts of acquittal on the unlawful assembly charge and of guilty on the failure to disperse from an unlawful meeting were inconsistent and could not stand. Defendant Adkins also challenged his conviction on the vagrancy charge asserting that RCW 9.87.010(13) was unconstitutionally vague. Defendants’ motions were denied. They appealed to the superior court.

During the course of a trial de novo before the superior court sitting with a jury, the defendants renewed their challenges relating to the inconsistent verdict question and the asserted vagueness of RCW 9.87.010(13). Their challenges were again rejected and, at the conclusion of trial, the jury found them guilty as charged! This appeal followed.

By their respective assignments of error, three issues are presented: (1) Whether RCW 9.87.010(13) of the vagrancy statute is unconstitutionally vague; (2) whether the district court verdicts of guilty of failing to disperse from an unlawful meeting and not guilty of unlawful assembly are [322]*322fatally inconsistent; and (3) whether the evidence presented was sufficient to support a conviction of failing to disperse from an unlawful meeting. We approach the issues in the order designated.

In State v. Oyen, 78 Wn.2d 909, 480 P.2d 766 (1971), and State v. Maloney, 78 Wn.2d 922, 481 P.2d 1 (1971), we fully considered the question of whether RCW 9.87.010(13) was unconstitutionally Vague, overbroad or violative of due process standards. We held that the statute in question was a valid one, stating with respect to the phrases “wilfully loiters” and “without a lawful purpose” that, taken in the full context of the statute,

These statutory standards and limitations, in our view, are sufficiently definite and specific to give any ordinary person of common intelligence wishing to avoid the interdiction of RCW 9.87.010(13) reasonable notice of the prohibited conduct. The provision, therefore, squares with procedural due process and is not unconstitutionally vague.

State v. Oyen, 78 Wn.2d 909, 917, 480 P.2d 766 (1971).

This determination is dispositive of the first issue raised by defendants.

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Related

State v. Johnson
500 P.2d 788 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1972)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
485 P.2d 81, 79 Wash. 2d 318, 1971 Wash. LEXIS 600, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-fisk-wash-1971.