State v. Sweeney
State v. Sweeney
Opinion of the Court
In the early morning of September 1,1966, Charles Harris and John Dunn, plainclothes detectives, were patrolling the streets of Waterbury in their police car. At about 2 a.m., as they were proceeding in a southerly direction on Bank Street, they observed the defendant, Arthur Sweeney, walking in a northerly direction on Bank Street and carrying a brown paper bag. Upon seeing the detectives, the defendant immediately turned and ran down Center Street, a side street, and attempted to hide under a parked car. The detectives followed,
The defendant refused to answer Harris’ question as to whether he had broken in anywhere, and he commenced to shout in a loud voice that he was being picked on, that he had not done anything, and that the detectives had no right to hold him. At that point people arrived from both directions on Center Street although prior to the shouting no other persons had been seen on that street and there was very little motor vehicle traffic in the vicinity. The detectives placed the defendant under arrest for disorderly conduct and identified themselves to the bystanders, who then, having been thus reassured, left the scene.
The defendant was taken to the police station and booked and before being placed in a cell was subjected to a standard, thorough search of his person. This search produced a quantity of coins and a set of keys. Subsequently, the defendant was charged with breaking and entering a building in violation of General Statutes § 53-76, and before his trial on that charge he made a motion to suppress, as evidence, the coins and keys, claiming that they had been obtained as a result of an illegal search. The motion to suppress was denied, and the defendant was found guilty as charged. From the judgment rendered he has appealed.
In his brief, the defendant does not effectively pursue any attack on the subordinate facts of the finding but claims that these facts, as found, do not
Section 6-49 of the General Statutes authorizes police officers to arrest without a warrant when the person arrested is “taken or apprehended in the act” of committing a criminal offense. A person is “ lawfully “taken or apprehended in the act” if the circumstances observed by the officer preceding the arrest, viewed in the light of common knowledge and his own training and experience, gave him probable cause to believe that a crime was being, or had just been, committed.’ State v. DelVecchio, 149 Conn. 567, 575, 182 A.2d 402. The amount of evidence necessary to furnish probable cause for an arrest without a warrant is to be measured by the facts of the particular case, and it need not be evidence sufficient to convict. Wong Sun v. United States, 371 U.S. 471, 479, 83 S. Ct. 407, 9 L. Ed. 2d 441.” State v. Elliott, 153 Conn. 147, 152, 215 A.2d 108; State v. Towles, supra, 520.
Thus, the arrest for disorderly conduct was legal if Detective Harris, who arrested the defendant, had probable cause to believe that the defendant’s actions constituted a violation of the disorderly conduct statute, General Statutes § 53-175. This statute
The defendant claims that protestations as to the legality of his arrest cannot be considered “offensive or disorderly conduct” within the meaning of the statute and cites as authority for this position Curtis v. United States, 222 A.2d 840, 842, a case decided by the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. That case holds that, just as a person may use reasonable physical force to resist an illegal arrest, he may also raise his voice to protest an illegal arrest and that so to do, without more, cannot warrant an arrest for disorderly conduct. Connecticut case law is in general accord. State v. Amara, 152 Conn. 296, 299, 206 A.2d 438; State v. Engle, 115 Conn. 638, 648, 162 A. 922. But the Curtis case differs widely from the case here. The Curtis case involved an illegal arrest. Here, the defendant was not protesting an illegal arrest. As of the time of the shouting, there had been no arrest. In
There is no error.
In this opinion Alcorn, House and Ryan, Js., concurred.
Since the shouting occurred on the street, there is no question here that it occurred in a public place.
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting). The majority opinion establishes the rule that there is probable cause to believe that General Statutes § 53-175 is criminally violated in a set of circumstances in which an individual, in the precise words of the court’s finding, “hollered in a very loud voice that the detectives were picking on him, that he didn’t do anything, that they had no right to hold him” and that “people appeared on the scene . . . and . . . returned from whence they came when the detectives identified themselves” on the premise that such deportment constitutes disorderly conduct. The defendant did not engage in any profanity, obscenities or physical abuse, common to cases of this nature involving disorderly conduct. See cases such as Thompson v. Louisville, 362 U.S. 199, 80 S. Ct. 624, 4 L. Ed. 2d 654; Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568, 572, 62 S. Ct. 766, 86 L. Ed. 1031. Oral remonstrance, without the use of abusive epithets or indignities directed toward an officer, although bad manners, is not considered to be disorderly conduct. See Landry v. Daley, 288 F. Sup. 183, 187 (N.D. Ill.); Oratowski v. Civil Service Commission, 3 Ill. App. 2d 551, 561, 123 N.E.2d 146. It is to be noted that a statute defining disorderly conduct is to be construed strictly; Commonwealth v. Lombard, 321 Mass. 294, 296, 73 N.E.2d 465; in favor of the accused; Lewis v. Commonwealth, 184 Va. 69, 73,
Reference
- Full Case Name
- State of Connecticut v. Arthur Sweeney
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- 14 cases
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- Published