State v. Rudd

773 A.2d 370, 62 Conn. App. 702, 2001 Conn. App. LEXIS 164
CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedApril 10, 2001
DocketAC 20131
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 773 A.2d 370 (State v. Rudd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Rudd, 773 A.2d 370, 62 Conn. App. 702, 2001 Conn. App. LEXIS 164 (Colo. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinion

Opinion

LAVERY, C. J.

The defendant, Tamekah Rudd, appeals from the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, of criminal trespass in the first degree in violation of General Statutes (Rev. to 1997) § 53a-107 (a) (l),1 breach of the peace in violation of General Statutes § 53a-181 (a) (l),2 disregarding an officer’s signal in violation of General Statutes (Rev. to 1997) § 14-223 (b)3 and reckless driving in violation of General [704]*704Statutes § 14-222 (a).4 The defendant was acquitted on a charge of reckless endangerment in the second degree in violation of General Statutes § 53a-64. The defendant claims that the trial court improperly refused (1) to instruct the jury on creating a public disturbance as a lesser included offense of breach of the peace and (2) to set aside the judgment of conviction as to reckless driving after she had been acquitted of reckless endangerment.

The jury reasonably could have found the following facts. On February 6, 1997, the defendant asked the principal of Stratford Academy, a public elementary school, if she could speak with her sister, Makeda Bright. The principal told the defendant that an injunction had been issued prohibiting her presence on school grounds and access to Bright, a sixth grade student at the school. The principal also instructed her secretary to call the police. When the police arrived, they directed the defendant to leave the premises.

Later that day, the defendant and her mother forcibly entered Stratford Academy. They rushed up the stairs and into a second floor classroom. The defendant and her mother took Bright from the classroom and outside [705]*705to the parking lot in violation of the injunction prohibiting the defendant and her mother from having access to the child. Several school employees stood in front of the defendant’s car to try to prevent her from leaving with the child. Their efforts were to no avail, and the defendant sped out of the parking lot.

Officers in two police cruisers observed the defendant leave the parking lot. She appeared to be traveling at a high rate of speed. The police chased her with their vehicles’ lights flashing. The defendant failed to stop at three stop signs in a residential school zone, and drove through a red traffic light and onto Interstate 95. The police continued to pursue the defendant while she weaved in and out of traffic on the three lane highway. Finally, the police surrounded the defendant’s car in the middle lane of Interstate 95 and forced her to come to a complete stop. Additional facts relevant to this appeal will be set forth as necessary.

I

The defendant claims that the court improperly refused to instruct the jury on creating a public disturbance in violation of General Statutes § 53a-181a as a lesser included offense of breach of the peace. The state argues in response that the court properly refused to give the lesser included offense instruction because the defendant failed to request an appropriate instruction. We agree with the state.5

“There is no fundamental constitutional right to a jury instruction on every lesser included offense . . . rather, the right to such an instruction is purely a matter [706]*706of our common law.” (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Tomasko, 238 Conn. 253, 260, 681 A.2d 922 (1996). In State v. Whistnant, 179 Conn. 576, 588, 427 A.2d 414 (1980), our Supreme Court determined that a lesser included offense instruction should be given when: “(1) an appropriate instruction is requested by either the state or the defendant; (2) it is not possible to commit the greater offense, in the manner described in the information or bill of particulars, without having first committed the lesser; (3) there is some evidence, introduced by either the state or the defendant, or by a combination of their proofs, which justifies conviction of the lesser offense; and (4) the proof on the element or elements which differentiate the lesser offense from the offense charged is sufficiently in dispute to permit the jury consistently to find the defendant innocent of the greater offense but guilty of the lesser.”

“Under the first prong of Whistnant, we must determine if the defendant’s request to charge was an appropriate instruction. ‘A proposed instruction on a lesser included offense constitutes an appropriate instruction for purposes of the first prong of Whistnant if it complies with Practice Book § 854 [now § 42-18]. . . .’ Practice Book § 42-18 (a) provides in relevant part: ‘When there are several requests, they shall be in separate and numbered paragraphs, each containing a single proposition of law clearly and concisely stated with the citation of authority upon which it is based, and the evidence to which the proposition would apply. . . State v. McPhee, 58 Conn. App. 501, 515, 755 A.2d 893, cert, denied, 254 Conn. 920, 759 A.2d 1026 (2000).

Applying that rule to the present case, we conclude that the court properly refused to grant the defendant’s request for a lesser included offense instruction. As an initial matter, the request was oral rather than in writing. Our Supreme Court has stated that absent a written [707]*707request, “the refusal of the court to so charge is justified.” State v. Jacobs, 194 Conn. 119, 128, 479 A.2d 226 (1984), cert, denied, 469 U.S. 1190, 105 S. Ct. 963, 83 L. Ed. 2d 968 (1985). We have further “rejected the view that an in-court discussion of whether the [requested] charge was warranted, held immediately before the court’s charge to the jury, is an acceptable alternative to the rules of practice. First, the rules of practice do not give oral argument as an alternative to a written request to charge. Second, the purpose of the provision, that attorneys help rather than hinder the trial court in its determination of whether a particular instruction should be given ... is not well served by oral argument. Rather than affording the court time to scrutinize the requests and investigate the relevant case law, so as to arrive at the proper legal answer, oral argument is likely to require the court to commit to memory the arguments of both sides, or to pressure it into making an immediate decision on the issue. We do not think it necessary or proper to burden the trial bench so.” (Citation omitted; internal quotation marks omitted.) State v. Payne, 31 Conn. App. 370, 378-79, 625 A.2d 231, cert, denied, 227 Conn. 901, 630 A.2d 73 (1993).

Because the request to charge was oral, it clearly was not in the form of “separate and numbered paragraphs” as required by our rules of practice. See Practice Book § 42-18 (a). It also did not contain a citation of authority to support the defendant’s claim that she was entitled to a charge of creating a public disturbance as a lesser included offense of breach of the peace. “[AJlthough the request cites State v. Whistnant as authority for the propositions stated, we emphasize that Whistnant,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
773 A.2d 370, 62 Conn. App. 702, 2001 Conn. App. LEXIS 164, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-rudd-connappct-2001.