State v. Moravek

444 P.3d 521, 297 Or. App. 763
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMay 30, 2019
DocketA165088 (Control); A165089
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 444 P.3d 521 (State v. Moravek) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Moravek, 444 P.3d 521, 297 Or. App. 763 (Or. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

SHORR, J.

*765Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for aggravated harassment (Count 1), ORS 166.070 ; resisting arrest (Count 2), ORS 162.315 ; and interfering with a peace officer (Count 3), ORS 162.247, and another judgment of conviction revoking her probation. Defendant assigns error to the trial court's failure to sua sponte issue a judgment of acquittal on Count 3. Defendant alternatively assigns error to the court's failure to sua sponte instruct the jury on "passive resistance," as that term has been construed in State v. McNally , 361 Or. 314, 392 P.3d 721 (2017). Defendant acknowledges that both assignments of error were unpreserved and requests that we exercise our discretion to review for plain error. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the judgments of the trial court.

Defendant was riding a TriMet MAX train when Officer Berry, a Beaverton officer assigned to the Transit Division, asked for

proof of defendant's fare. Defendant did not have valid fare, and Berry asked defendant to get off at the next stop. Defendant became "kind of irate" and "pretty rude." When the train reached the next transit stop, defendant, Berry, and other officers got off the train, and Berry issued a 30-day TriMet exclusion to defendant. After Berry handed defendant the related paperwork, Berry noticed that defendant was still standing close to her on the platform. Berry told defendant that she needed to either purchase a valid ticket or leave the platform. Defendant turned to walk away, but then defendant stopped, turned back toward Berry, and spat on Berry's shoe. Berry then told defendant that she was under arrest. Berry attempted to put defendant in handcuffs, but defendant "whipped" her arm away. Two of the other officers came to Berry's assistance. Defendant continued to struggle and "scream" at the officers, who eventually got defendant on the ground and in handcuffs.

Once defendant was in handcuffs, two officers walked her off the MAX platform, toward a parking area. With an officer on each side of her, defendant dropped her weight so that she "threw herself" or "fell" to the ground. The officers ordered defendant to stand up, but defendant refused, saying in effect that "it was now [the officers'] job *766and that [they] were strong enough and [they] should be capable of carrying her into a police car." Two officers physically lifted defendant from underneath her armpits and another officer carried defendant's legs. The officers carried defendant to the patrol car and "somewhat" put her inside. One of the officers went to the other side of the car and pulled on defendant's arms while another officer pushed on her thighs, and together they were able to "shove" defendant mostly into the back of the car, with only her legs sticking out one of the open doors. The officers ordered defendant to bend her knees and put her feet inside the car, but defendant refused and instead "stiffened her legs out" so that the door would not shut. Berry forced defendant's knees to bend by pushing underneath her kneecaps. One officer testified that the encounter with defendant "was just a continual fight since-since we were on the platform with her."

Among other charges stemming from the incident, defendant was charged with interfering with a peace officer (IPO), ORS 162.247, for "unlawfully and knowingly refus[ing] to obey a lawful order of [Officer] Berry, a person known by the defendant to be a peace officer." ORS 162.247 provides, in pertinent part, that a person commits the crime of IPO if the person,

"knowing that another person is a peace officer or a parole and probation officer as defined in ORS 181A.355 :
"* * * * *
"(b) Refuses to obey a lawful order by the peace officer or parole and probation officer.
"* * * * *
"(3) This section does not apply in situations in which the person is engaging in:
"* * * * *
"(b) Passive resistance. "

(Emphasis added.) At the time of defendant's trial, the controlling definition of "passive resistance" limited it to "specific acts or techniques that are commonly associated with governmental protest or civil disobedience." State v. Patnesky , 265 Or. App. 356, 366, 335 P.3d 331 (2014), abrogated by McNally , 361 Or. 314, 392 P.3d 721.

*767Defendant's case proceeded to a jury trial. At trial, the state's theory in regard to IPO was that, after defendant was handcuffed and off the platform, she refused to obey Berry's orders to stand up, get into the patrol car, and bend her knees.1 Defendant

did not move for a judgment of acquittal on the basis that her conduct amounted to passive resistance, nor did defendant request a jury instruction on passive resistance, although she raises those unpreserved errors on appeal. The jury found defendant guilty on all counts, and the trial court entered a judgment of conviction. Defendant was also found to be in violation of her probation on another, unrelated case because of the above-mentioned convictions.

Approximately one month after defendant was convicted, the Supreme Court decided McNally , which abrogated Patnesky and held that passive resistance is not limited to acts of governmental protest or civil disobedience. Rather, the court held that passive resistance

"refers to noncooperation with a peace officer's lawful order that does not involve violence or active measures, whatever the motivation for the noncooperation and regardless of whether the noncooperation takes the form of acts, techniques, or methods commonly associated with civil rights or other organized protest."

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State v. Partin
335 Or. App. 357 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2024)
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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
444 P.3d 521, 297 Or. App. 763, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-moravek-orctapp-2019.