State v. Poitra

323 P.3d 563, 261 Or. App. 818, 2014 WL 1245055, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 372
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMarch 26, 2014
Docket10C47950; A148526
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 323 P.3d 563 (State v. Poitra) 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. Poitra, 323 P.3d 563, 261 Or. App. 818, 2014 WL 1245055, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 372 (Or. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

GARRETT, J.

Defendant appeals from a judgment of conviction entered following a jury trial. The jury convicted defendant on misdemeanor charges of second-degree disorderly conduct, ORS 166.025, and resisting arrest, ORS 162.315. On appeal, defendant argues that the trial court improperly instructed the jury on her defense of self-defense and that she was prejudiced by the erroneous instruction. Because we agree that the instruction was erroneous and could have confused the jury on an issue crucial to the defense, we reverse and remand.

The parties do not dispute the relevant facts. On September 30, 2010, defendant attended a hearing in her son’s criminal case. Near the conclusion of the hearing, defendant caused a disturbance from the gallery. The judge instructed defendant not to leave the courtroom. Defendant rose from her seat and began moving toward the door. A deputy sheriff present in the courtroom directed defendant to obey the judge’s instruction, but defendant continued toward the door. The deputy then grabbed defendant by the wrist and, with the assistance of another deputy, forced defendant into a sitting position on a bench. The officers then pinned defendant’s upper body to the bench. While still restrained, defendant tried to stand up. Two deputies then brought defendant to the ground. She suffered abrasions on her forehead, brow, and cheek.

Defendant was charged with one count each of disorderly conduct in the second degree, resisting arrest, and contempt of court. The disorderly conduct and resisting arrest charges were tried to a jury.1 At trial, defendant argued that she had acted in self-defense. Following a conference with the parties on jury instructions and after closing arguments, the trial court instructed the jury, in relevant part, as follows:

“I instruct you that a peace officer is justified in using physical force on a person being arrested when and to the extent the officer reasonably believes it necessary to take the person into custody unless the officer knows the arrest [820]*820is unlawful. The defense of self-defense has been raised and I instruct you that a person is justified in using physical force on a peace officer to defend herself from what she reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of excessive, unlawful physical force. In defending, a person may use only that degree of force which she reasonably believes necessary under the circumstances. With regard to self-defense, the burden is on the State to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the defense does not apply.”

Defendant timely objected to that instruction. Citing State v. Oliphant, 347 Or 175, 218 P3d 1281 (2009), defendant argued that the instruction was erroneous and prejudicial to the extent that it directed the jury to consider the peace officers’ state of mind in evaluating defendant’s argument that she acted in self-defense.

The jury found defendant guilty on both the disorderly conduct and the resisting arrest charges. Defendant was sentenced to 18 months of bench probation on the disorderly conduct charge and ordered to pay a $412 fine on the resisting arrest charge. The sentence for the contempt charge was discharged by the trial court.

The sole issue on appeal is whether the trial court’s instruction to the jury on the issue of self-defense was erroneous and prejudiced defendant. We review jury instructions for errors of law. State v. Frey, 248 Or App 1, 3, 273 P3d 143 (2012). An erroneous jury instruction constitutes reversible error if, taken as a whole, the jury instructions “probably created an erroneous impression of the law in the minds of the jur[ors]” and affected the outcome of the case. State v. Pine, 336 Or 194, 210, 82 P3d 130 (2003); State v. Thompson, 328 Or 248, 266, 971 P2d 879 (1999).

A person’s right to use force in self-defense is governed by ORS 161.209, which provides:

“[A] person is justified in using physical force upon another person for self-defense * * * from what the person reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of unlawful physical force, and the person may use a degree of force which the person reasonably believes to be necessary for the purpose.”

Accordingly, in evaluating a defense of self-defense, a jury must weigh the defendant’s state of mind in two respects: [821]*821(1) whether the defendant reasonably believed that the victim used or threatened to use unlawful physical force against the defendant; and (2) whether the defendant used a degree of force in self-defense that the defendant reasonably believed was necessary. State v. Bassett, 234 Or App 259, 264, 228 P3d 590, rev den, 348 Or 461 (2010).

In Oliphant, the Supreme Court made explicit what is implicit in the statute: The paramount issue when self-defense is raised is the defendant’s state of mind. 347 Or at 194. In that case, the defendant was charged with, among other things, resisting arrest. Id. at 178. The defendant argued that he had acted in self-defense. Id. at 182. The trial court included a jury instruction that “[a] peace officer may use physical force on a person being arrested only when, and to the extent that the officer reasonably believes it necessary to make an arrest.” Id. at 187 (emphasis omitted). The Supreme Court rejected that instruction under the “plain wording” of ORS 161.209, which “establishes that, in general, a person’s right to use force in self-defense depends on the person’s own reasonable belief in the necessity for such action, and not on whether the force used or about to be used on him actually was unlawful.” Id. at 191 (emphasis in original). The court held that the trial court had “inserted an irrelevant issue — the arresting officers’ actual state of mind — into the jury’s deliberations concerning [the defendant’s] claim of self-defense.” Id. at 194.

The trial court here used the same jury instruction regarding the officers’ state of mind that was rejected in Oliphant. Defendant contends that this was reversible error because, under Oliphant, the state of mind of an arresting officer is not relevant to a self-defense analysis and risks confusing the jury, which instead must evaluate the defendant’s reasonable belief as to the circumstances.

The state concedes that the jury instructions were flawed in light of Oliphant but argues that the material about the peace officers’ state of mind was merely “superfluous” and “irrelevant” and did not render the jury instructions, as a whole, erroneous or prejudicial. The state contrasts the inclusion of the single-sentence instruction here with the set of instructions that the Supreme Court considered in [822]*822Oliphant, which contained a far longer discussion of when officers may use force, including deadly force. The state suggests that the Supreme Court’s holding in Oliphant

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
323 P.3d 563, 261 Or. App. 818, 2014 WL 1245055, 2014 Ore. App. LEXIS 372, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-poitra-orctapp-2014.