State v. Rapp

473 P.3d 1126, 306 Or. App. 265
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedAugust 26, 2020
DocketA166498
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 473 P.3d 1126 (State v. Rapp) 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. Rapp, 473 P.3d 1126, 306 Or. App. 265 (Or. Ct. App. 2020).

Opinion

Submitted September 19, 2019, affirmed August 26, petition for review denied December 10, 2020 (367 Or 291)

STATE OF OREGON, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. KEVIN JOHN RAPP, Defendant-Appellant. Grant County Circuit Court 17CR33989; A166498 473 P3d 1126

Defendant was charged with fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer (Count 1) and reckless driving (Count 2), and those charges were tried to a jury. “A person commits the crime of fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer” if the person “knowingly flees or attempts to elude” a police officer under cer- tain statutorily specified circumstances. ORS 811.540(1)(b)(A), (B). Defendant requested a jury instruction that was premised on his contention that the state was required to prove that he had intentionally attempted to elude a pursuing police officer. The trial court declined defendant’s proposed jury instruction on the intentional mental state and instead instructed the jury only regarding the knowing mental state. Defendant assigns error to the trial court’s failure to provide his proposed jury instruction, arguing that a person impermissibly “attempts to elude,” for purposes of that statute, only if the person intentionally attempts to elude police, despite the legislature’s use of the term “knowingly” in ORS 811.540(1)(b)(A) and (B). Held: The statute does not implicitly incorporate a requirement that the defendant have acted intentionally; thus, to prove a viola- tion of ORS 811.540(1)(b)(A) or (B) based on an attempt to elude police, the state is not required to prove that the defendant acted intentionally. To the contrary, the mental state that applies is the one that the statute specifies, i.e., “know- ingly.” The trial court therefore did not err when it refused to provide defendant’s requested jury instructions. Affirmed.

W. D. Cramer, Jr., Judge. Ernest G. Lannet, Chief Defender, Criminal Appellate Section, and Stacy M. Du Clos, Deputy Public Defender, Office of Public Defense Services, filed the briefs for appellant. Ellen F. Rosenblum, Attorney General, Benjamin Gutman, Solicitor General, and Robert M. Wilsey, Assistant Attorney General, filed the brief for respondent. 266 State v. Rapp

Before DeHoog, Presiding Judge, and Mooney, Judge, and Hadlock, Judge pro tempore. HADLOCK, J. pro tempore. Affirmed. Cite as 306 Or App 265 (2020) 267

HADLOCK, J. pro tempore “A person commits the crime of fleeing or attempt- ing to elude a police officer” if the person “knowingly flees or attempts to elude” a police officer under certain statuto- rily specified circumstances. ORS 811.540(1)(b)(A), (B). The question presented here is whether a person impermissibly “attempts to elude,” for purposes of that statute, only if the person intentionally attempts to elude police, despite the leg- islature’s use of the term “knowingly” in ORS 811.540(1)(b)(A) and (B). We conclude that the statute does not implicitly incorporate a requirement that the defendant have acted intentionally. We reject defendant’s contrary argument and, therefore, affirm. Defendant was charged with fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer (Count 1) and reckless driving (Count 2), and those charges were tried to a jury. The arguments that we address in this opinion center on the court’s refusal to give jury instructions for which defendant advocated. Accordingly, our description of the facts focuses on the evi- dence that supports giving those requested instructions. See State v. Payne, 366 Or 588, 603-07, 468 P3d 445 (2020) (an appellate court reviews a trial court’s refusal to give a jury instruction for legal error, viewing the evidence “in the light most favorable to the party requesting the instruction”).1 One evening, police officer Scott Moore attempted to stop a truck driven by defendant. Moore testified that defendant drove “at a high rate of speed” after Moore pulled behind him. According to Moore, defendant continued to speed after Moore turned on his patrol car’s lights and siren. Defendant “blew right through” an intersection, made a turn, went through a stop sign, and then pulled into the driveway of his house. Defendant emerged from the truck and was arrested. Three people testified who had observed parts of the incident. One of those witnesses opined that the driver (defendant) had “really accelerated on his speed once he had spotted the lights of the officer’s vehicle.” That witness also 1 Defendant also was charged with two traffic violations. The court found him not guilty of one violation and guilty of the other (driving while suspended). 268 State v. Rapp

testified to having heard sirens. A second witness testified about having seen the truck going fast and running a stop sign with a “police officer behind him with his lights on after him.” That witness could not recall having heard a siren. A third witness testified that the police car had been traveling at a fast rate of speed without its lights on for some length of time before the officer turned on the lights. That witness also testified that she did not hear sirens until two or three minutes later. Defendant also testified about what happened that evening, explaining that he had driven away from his house, heading to a particular business establishment, when he realized that he had left his wallet behind. Accordingly, defendant turned around to go home and retrieve the wallet. Defendant testified that, although he had seen a patrol car earlier, he did not see any officer as he drove back toward his house. He denied having seen any signal from police as he drove home. Thus, defendant asserted that that he had not heard any siren (he had been driving with his windows up) and had not seen red or blue lights (like those associated with police). Only after defendant turned into his driveway did he notice an officer driving with lights on; he then heard sirens after he got out of his truck. Defendant also testi- fied that the vehicle he had been driving, an older pickup truck, was not capable of going as fast as other witnesses had described. Before the parties made closing arguments, the lawyers and the court discussed the parties’ proposed jury instructions as they related to Count 1, the charge of flee- ing or attempting to elude a police officer. In the charging instrument, that count had been alleged with a “knowing” mental state, reflecting the text of ORS 811.540(1)(b)(A):2

2 ORS 811.540(1) provides: “A person commits the crime of fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer if: “(a) The person is operating a motor vehicle; and “(b) A police officer who is in uniform and prominently displaying the police officer’s badge of office or operating a vehicle appropriately marked showing it to be an official police vehicle gives a visual or audible signal to bring the vehicle to a stop, including any signal by hand, voice, emergency light or siren, and either: Cite as 306 Or App 265 (2020) 269

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Bluebook (online)
473 P.3d 1126, 306 Or. App. 265, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-rapp-orctapp-2020.