State v. Judkins
State v. Judkins
Opinion of the Court
The defendant was charged in three counts with the crimes of interfering with a police officer, assault on a police officer, and resisting a police officer, in violation of § 53-165 of the G-eneral Statutes. On a trial to the jury, the defendant was found not guilty on the first and second counts and guilty of resisting a police officer as charged in the third count. He has appealed from the judgment rendered on the guilty verdict. Three assignments of error have been pursued on the appeal: (1) denial of the defendant’s motion for a directed verdict; (2) instructions to the jury on the weighing of the credibility of the defendant; and (3) instructions to the jury on the defendant’s constructive knowledge that
After the state and the defense rested, the defendant moved for a directed verdict on the ground that the facts presented were insufficient as a matter of law to convict and that the conviction went against the weight of the evidence. The court denied the motion. “[T]he court may direct a verdict of not guilty in a criminal case when the reasoning mind could not reasonably reach a conclusion other than that the evidence, under the law, is not sufficient to justify a finding of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The trial court should not direct a verdict of not guilty unless the judge is clearly of the opinion, upon the best consideration and judgment he can give the matter, that under the law the evidence compels such a direction.” State v. Torello, 100 Conn. 637, 643; see General Statutes § 54-89. “This power should, however, be carefully used,” Maltbie, op. cit. § 203, p. 252. The correctness of the court’s ruling on the motion must be tested by the evidence set forth in the certified transcript. Practice Book § 960.
Prom the evidence before them, the jury could reasonably have found the following facts beyond a reasonable doubt. The defendant, accompanied- by his wife, was attending a rock and roll concert at the Loft, a music coffeehouse located at 419 Farmington Avenue in the city of Hartford, on the evening of February 7,1971. The Loft is located on the second floor and is reached by a staircase ascending from the ground floor. At around 11 p.m., three members of the Hartford police, Detective Edward Cody, Officer Martin Haley and Officer Little, arrived in civilian clothes and informed the owner, Michael Suss-man, that the Loft was overcrowded and thereupon
Tbe defendant further claims, under his first assignment of error, that the “conviction went against the weight of the evidence.” It is a function of the jury to weigh the evidence, not this court. State v. Smith, 149 Conn. 487, 489; State v. Lougiotis, 130 Conn. 372, 375. The question of credibility of the witnesses was, of course, for the jury to determine. State v. White, 155 Conn. 122, 123.
The next assignment of error relates to the court’s instructions wherein the court charged as follows: “You [jury] will consider the importance to him [defendant] of the outcome of the trial and his motive, if any, for telling the truth or not telling the truth.” This instruction immediately preceded the following instruction: “In weighing the testimony he [defendant] has given, you should apply the same principles by which the testimony of every witness is tested and that necessarily involves the consideration of his interest in the outcome o'f this particular trial.” Immediately following the instruction in question, the court continued: “An accused person having taken the witness stand, stands before you just like any other person and is entitled to the same consideration. He must have his testimony measured in the same way as any other witness, including, however, his interest in the verdict you are to render.” The defendant has cited a number of cases from other jurisdictions in which he claims such instructions have been held erroneous, such as People v. Boren, 139 Cal. 210; State v. Rogers, 30 Idaho 259; State v. Bester, 167 N.W.2d 705 (Iowa); and State v. Finkelstein, 269 Mo. 612. The defendant cites no Connecticut case to support his contention but argues that the rule in Griffin v. California, 380 U. S. 609, should
In State v. Schleifer, 102 Conn. 708, 725, the court charged, in relation to the testimony of the accused, “. . . above all, you are to take into consideration that he is the accused in this case and his great interest in the result of the same,” and this charge was held to be correct. In State v. Palko, 122 Conn. 529, the trial court commented on the jury’s right to consider the motive, if any, of any witness for testifying as he did, and stated that such fact should be taken into consideration in weighing the testimony of the witness as it related to reliability. On appeal, the Supreme Court said (p. 534): “The jury could not have understood the whole sentence as informing them otherwise than if the jury found that any witness had a motive for testifying falsely they had a right to consider that in weighing his testimony, and the fact that the accused appearing as a witness has a vital interest in the result of the trial is not an exception to this rule.” See State v. Fiske, 63 Conn. 388, 392. This portion of the charge was a fair statement of our law.
The defendant’s final assignment of error is directed to the court’s instruction relating to the first count wherein the court told the jury that they must find that the defendant had either actual or constructive knowledge that Cody was a police officer. At the close of the instructions the defendant took an exception as follows: “My next exception relates to
There is no error.
In this opinion Jacobs and Kinmonth, Js., concurred.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.