State v. Baptiste
State v. Baptiste
Opinion of the Court
Opinion
In this certified appeal, the defendant, Oles J. Baptiste, appeals from the judgment of the Appellate Court, which affirmed the judgment of conviction, rendered after a jury trial, on charges of one count of assault of a peace officer in violation of General
Following our grant of certification, this court issued its decision in State v. Kitchens, 299 Conn. 447, 482-83, 10 A.3d 942 (2011), wherein we held that, “when the trial court provides counsel with a copy of the proposed jury instructions, allows a meaningful opportunity for their review, solicits comments from counsel regarding changes or modifications and counsel affirmatively accepts the instructions proposed or given, the defendant may be deemed to have knowledge of any potential flaws therein and to have waived implicitly the constitutional right to challenge the instructions on direct appeal.”
The Appellate Court’s opinion sets forth the facts that the jury reasonably could have found in support of the defendant’s convictions; State v. Baptiste, 114 Conn. App. 750, 752-54, 970 A.2d 816 (2009); which establish an incident underlying the conviction that occurred over a single day in 2005, in which the defendant was involved in a physical altercation with three members of the Norwich police department. The Appellate Court’s opinion also sets forth the following additional facts, which are relevant to the defendant’s claim on appeal. “The defendant submitted a request to charge
“The court continued: ‘So, with that, I think every other part of the jury charge is agreed upon. Is that true?’ . . . Defense counsel replied: ‘Yes, Your Honor.’
“The court instructed the jury in relevant part: ‘The name of the statute [the defendant is] charged with is
“ ‘For you to find the defendant [guilty] of this charge, the state must have proven the following elements: one, the victim of the assault was a reasonable identifiable peace officer or known to the defendant as a peace officer; two, the conduct of the defendant occurred while that peace officer was acting in the performance of his duties; three, that the defendant had the specific intent to prevent the peace officer from performing his lawful duties; and four, that the defendant caused physical injury to the peace officer.
“ ‘A peace officer is defined as a member of an organized police department, to wit, in this case, the Norwich police department. Physical injury means impairment of physical condition or pain. The law does not require the injury to be serious; it may be minor. If the officer is acting under a good faith belief that he is carrying out his duty and if his actions are reasonable to that end, he’s acting in the performance of his duties.
“ ‘The phrase “in the performance of his duties” means that the police officer is simply acting within the scope of what he’s employed to do. The test is whether the police officer was acting in his capacity as an officer or engaging in some frolic of his own. You will make this determination based on the circumstances of this case.
“ ‘Also, it’s necessary that the person being arrested either knew or should have known that the other person was a peace officer, and the standard you would apply as jurors is whether a reasonable person under the
“ ‘The defendant is also charged with two counts of interfering with a peace officer. The defendant is charged with that charge . . . under [§ 53a-167a], which provides as follows: A person is guilty of interfering with an officer when such person obstructs, resists, hinders or endangers a peace officer in the performance of such peace officer’s duties. For you to find the defendant guilty of this charge, the state must have proven the following elements beyond a reasonable doubt; one, that the defendant obstructed, resisted or endangered a peace officer; two, that the conduct of the defendant occurred while the police officer was in the performance of his duties; and three, that the defendant intended to obstruct, resist, hinder or endanger the peace officer while that peace officer was in the performance of his duties. A peace officer, once again, is a member of an organized police department.
“ ‘If you find that the officer was not a peace officer, then you would find the defendant not guilty. If you find that he was a peace officer, you would go on to the other elements of this crime and, with the first element, there [are] four words describing the way interference may be committed. Obstructs means to interpose obstacles or impediments to impede or in any manner to intrude or prevent. These words do not imply the use of direct force or the exercise of direct means. Resist means oppose by direct, active or forcible or quasi-forcible means. Hinders means to make slow or difficult the progress to hold back or delay or impede or prevent action by the police.
“ ‘If the officer is acting under a good faith belief that he is carrying out his duty and if his actions are reasonably designed to that end, he’s acting in the performance of his duties. The phrase, again, “intheperfor-
“ ‘So, if you find the state has proven beyond a reasonable doubt the elements I have described to you of two counts of interfering with an officer and one count of assault on a peace officer, then you would find the defendant guilty. On the other hand, if you find that the state has not proven the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, you would find the defendant not guilty.’
“The defendant took no further exception to the court’s instructions.” Id., 757-61.
The jury returned a verdict of guilty on all counts, and the trial court rendered judgment in accordance with the verdict. The defendant then appealed from the judgment of the trial court to the Appellate Court, claiming, inter alia, that the trial court’s jury instructions on the charge of assault of a police officer in violation of § 53a-167c (a) and interfering with an officer in violation of § 53a-167a (a) deprived him of his right to a fair trial and to present a defense.
The Appellate Court declined to review the claim on the ground that the defendant had waived that claim. Id., 764-65. That court reasoned that the defendant had submitted a request to charge only as to self-defense under § 53a-19, and after the trial court denied the defendant’s request as to § 53a-19, the defendant expressed satisfaction with the charge and had failed thereafter to raise any objection to it. Id. In light of its conclusion that the defendant had waived his claim of instructional error, the Appellate Court determined that no constitutional violation clearly existed, and thus, the defendant’s claim failed under the third prong of Golding. Id., 764. This certified appeal followed. Additional facts will be set forth as necessary.
On appeal to this court, the defendant claims that the Appellate Court’s conclusion that the the defendant had waived his claim of instructional error is inconsistent with this court’s recent decision in State v. Kitchens, supra, 299 Conn. 447. Specifically, the defendant asserts that he did not have a “meaningful opportunity” for review of the jury instructions because the trial court held only a brief charging conference and the defendant did not receive a written copy of the instructions. See id., 482-83.
In the present case, the trial court conducted a charging conference off the record. That court indicated on the record that the parties had discussed the fact that the trial court would not be giving a self-defense charge and “had a discussion—and what might be considered a compromise with counsel knowing [that the trial court was not] doing the self-defense charge—to add a passage to the jury to give them an option on the state of
In a case similar to the present case, we declined to find that a defendant implicitly had waived his claim of instructional error when, “although the trial court conducted a charge conference during which counsel had an opportunity to participate in the formulation of the jury instructions, there is no indication on the record that the trial court provided the defendant with an advance copy of the proposed jury charge.” State v. Collins, 299 Conn. 567, 597, 10 A.3d 1005 (2011). In rejecting the waiver argument, we concluded that, “although the trial court’s summary of the conference indicates that one of the topics discussed—namely, closing arguments about the quality of the police investigation—related to the topic of the instructions now challenged on appeal, we cannot say with certainty whether the defendant had a meaningful opportunity to review the written instruction itself and to challenge any objectionable language therein.” Id., 597-98; see also State v. Brown, 299 Conn. 640, 659, 11 A.3d 663 (2011) (“Because we have no record of the charging conference or copy of the court’s intended charge, we do not know if the trial court expressly rejected the state’s proper request to charge, or included the proper
Similar to our conclusion in State v. Collins, supra, 299 Conn. 597-98, in the present case, there is no indication that the defendant had a meaningful opportunity to review the charges where the trial court conducted a brief charging conference off the record and failed to provide the defendant with an advance copy of the charges. Accordingly, we decline to find this claim implicitly waived under Kitchens and conclude that the merits of the claim must be reviewed pursuant to Golding.
Although our conclusion in the present case does not require that a trial court must always provide the parties with an advance written copy of the charges, we do suggest that advance written copies of charges should be provided to counsel in all trials, except for possibly in the shortest of trials where it is not feasible. Moreover, we also take this opportunity to remind trial courts that, although off-the-record charging conferences are acceptable, if the trial court chooses to conduct the charging conference off the record, it should take care
The judgment of the Appellate Court is reversed and the case is remanded to that court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
In this opinion ROGERS, C. J., and NORCOTT, ZARE-LLA and HARPER, Js., concurred.
Prior to oral argument in this court, we directed the parties by letter that “counsel be prepared to address at oral argument questions regarding
“The defendant’s request to charge was noted on the record but was not made a part of the court file. The defendant supplied [the Appellate Court and this court] with a copy of his request to charge, and the state has not challenged the authenticity of the document. Additionally, the request to charge is in line with the defendant’s oral request to charge and his exception to the court’s instructions. Accordingly, [the Appellate Court and this court considered] the substance of the request to charge in [analyzing] the defendant’s claim.” State v. Baptiste, supra, 114 Conn. App. 757 n.12.
General Statutes § 53a-19 (a) provides: “Except as provided in subsections (b) and (c) of this section, a person is justified in using reasonable physical force upon another person to defend himself or a third person from what he reasonably believes to be the use or imminent use of physical force, and he may use such degree of force which he reasonably believes to be necessary for such purpose; except that deadly physical force may not be used unless the actor reasonably believes that such other person is (1) using or about to use deadly physical force, or (2) inflicting or about to inflict great bodily harm.”
The defendant also claimed that the trial court improperly: (1) refused to instruct the jury on self-defense as set forth in § 53a-19; and (2) permitted the state to cross-examine the defendant about his fourteen prior arrests for interfering with a police officer and his conviction of engaging police officers in pursuit. State v. Baptiste, supra, 114 Conn. App. 765. The Appellate Court rejected those claims; id., 765-66, 772; and those determinations are not at issue in this certified appeal.
Under State v. Golding, supra, 213 Conn. 239-40, a defendant may “prevail on [an unpreserved] claim of constitutional error . . . only if all of the following conditions are met: (1) the record is adequate to review the alleged claim of error; (2) the claim is of constitutional magnitude alleging the violation of a fundamental right; (3) the alleged constitutional violation clearly exists and clearly deprived the defendant of a fair trial; and (4) if subject to harmless error analysis, the state has failed to demonstrate harmlessness of the alleged constitutional violation beyond a reasonable doubt.” The first two factors determine whether the claim may be reviewed, and the second two factors determine whether, as a result of constitutional error, the defendant is entitled to a new trial. State v. Kitchens, supra, 299 Conn. 466-67.
In their briefs to this court, the parties, did not address the merits of the defendant’s claim because it was beyond the scope of the certified question in this appeal. Accordingly, we remand the case to the Appellate Court for consideration of the merits of the defendant’s claim.
Concurring Opinion
concurring.
I agree with the majority’s conclusion that the Appellate Court improperly determined that the defendant, Oles J. Baptiste, waived his claim that the trial court’s jury instructions were constitutionally inadequate. Specifically, I agree that the defendant’s claim is not foreclosed under the waiver principles that this court recently adopted in State v. Kitchens, 299 Conn. 447, 10 A.2d 942 (2011).
In addition to resolving this issue—the sole issue presented by the defendant’s certified appeal—the majority also states that “advance written copies of [the court’s jury instructions] should be provided to counsel in all trials, except for possibly the shortest of trials where it is not feasible.” The majority further explains that, “if the [trial] court chooses to conduct the charging conference off the record, it should take care to accurately note the matters discussed in the conference once the parties are back on the record, and the court should invite counsel’s acquiescence with regard to those comments.” Although I agree that, whenever fea
Reference
- Full Case Name
- STATE OF CONNECTICUT v. OLES J. BAPTISTE
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- 11 cases
- Status
- Published