State v. Pucket

422 P.3d 341, 291 Or. App. 771
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMay 16, 2018
DocketA159813
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 422 P.3d 341 (State v. Pucket) 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. Pucket, 422 P.3d 341, 291 Or. App. 771 (Or. Ct. App. 2018).

Opinion

HADLOCK, J.

*772Defendant appeals from a judgment of conviction for second-degree disorderly conduct for recklessly creating a risk of public inconvenience, annoyance, and alarm by making unreasonable noise. He assigns error to the trial court's denial of his motion for judgment of acquittal, contending that the disorderly conduct statute, ORS 166.025(1)(b), violates both Article I, section 8, of the Oregon Constitution and the First Amendment of the United States Constitution as applied to his expressive conduct.1 We disagree and, accordingly, affirm.

In considering a trial court's ruling on a motion for judgment of acquittal, we state the facts in the light most favorable to the state, reviewing "to determine whether a rational trier of fact * * * could have found the essential element of the crime beyond a reasonable doubt." State v. Cunningham , 320 Or. 47, 63, 880 P.2d 431 (1994), cert. den. , 514 U.S. 1005, 115 S.Ct. 1317, 131 L.Ed.2d 198 (1995).

Two days before defendant was arrested, Tillamook Police Sergeant Bomer, along with Officer Greiner, responded to a noise complaint and encountered defendant standing on the sidewalk in front of a Fred Meyer store using an "electrified" bullhorn to preach to passersby. Bomer read the disorderly conduct statute to defendant and explained to him that he could say what he wanted but that he would need to do so without using the bullhorn. Defendant expressed skepticism that the statute applied to his conduct. Bomer decided not to cite defendant at that time, and, as she and Greiner walked back to the patrol car, defendant resumed using the bullhorn.

Two days later, on Christmas Eve, defendant returned to the sidewalk in front of Fred Meyer with a second man and again used the bullhorn to preach. Greiner's wife was visiting Fred Meyer and could hear defendant from inside her car, parked approximately 50 feet away, when she turned off her engine. Although she did not know what defendant was saying, she found him annoying and distracting, and *773she complained to her husband about the noise. Greiner and Officer Olson responded to the scene. In accordance with an instructional email that had been sent out to the department, the officers did not immediately approach defendant. Instead, Greiner made audio recordings from three positions located across Highway 101 from Fred Meyer and approximately 300 feet from defendant-the entrance to a hotel, the restaurant at that hotel, and a gas station. Although the recording does not provide a listener with a way to discern how others would have experienced the volume of defendant's amplified speech at the time, people from each location testified at trial to having heard defendant from across the highway. Indeed, an employee of the hotel testified that she heard defendant from inside the hotel for "[t]he better part of [her] shift, which was eight hours." That hotel employee added that guests complained about defendant's *344noise and that defendant was so loud that "it was hard to hear on the phone." An employee from the gas station also testified to hearing defendant over the station's intercom system. A Fred Meyer employee testified that customers were complaining about defendant. The only witnesses who testified to understanding what defendant was saying were his pastor, who stopped nearby for a short period, and defendant's wife, who could understand defendant only if she "was parked real close and [had her] window rolled down."

When Greiner and Olson contacted defendant, Olson noted that the bullhorn's volume was set "fully up." Olson informed defendant that, while he was "okay to speak [his] mind," his volume was unreasonable. After some debate, Olson told defendant that Olson would be seizing the bullhorn and that, if defendant did not surrender the bullhorn, he would be arrested. The officers ultimately arrested defendant, who was charged with violating ORS 166.025 (1)(b) by "recklessly creat[ing] a risk of public inconvenience, annoyance and alarm by making unreasonable noise."2

*774At the close of the state's case in the bench trial that followed, defendant moved for a judgment of acquittal. The court denied that motion. After making detailed findings of fact, the court determined that defendant had been arrested for making unreasonable noise rather than for the content of his speech, and it found defendant guilty of second-degree disorderly conduct.

On appeal, defendant argues that the trial court erred when it denied his motion for judgment of acquittal because the disorderly conduct statute, ORS 166.025(1)(b), violates Article I, section 8, and the First Amendment as applied to his conduct. The state argues that ORS 166.025 (1)(b) is constitutional as applied in this case.

We begin with the state constitutional analysis. The Oregon Supreme Court set forth a framework to address Article I, section 8, free expression issues in State v. Robertson , 293 Or. 402, 649 P.2d 569 (1982). That framework distinguishes "between laws that focus on the content of speech or writing and laws that focus on the pursuit or accomplishment of forbidden results ." State v. Plowman , 314 Or. 157, 164, 838 P.2d 558 (1992), cert. den. , 508 U.S. 974

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
422 P.3d 341, 291 Or. App. 771, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-pucket-orctapp-2018.