New York Court of Appeals, 1986

People v. Peacock

New York Court of Appeals · Decided July 1, 1986

68 N.Y.2d 675; 496 N.E.2d 683; 505 N.Y.S.2d 594; 1986 N.Y. LEXIS 19318

Cases that cite this one

63 later published cases cite this decision. The 25 that cite it most often are listed here.

People v. Voliton (N.Y. 1994)
Gibson v. NJ Dept Law & Pub (3d Cir. 2005)
People v. Jensen (N.Y. 1995)
Baranchik v. Fizulich (Cal. Ct. App. 2017)
Essex Hayward v. Cleveland Clinic Found. (6th Cir. 2014)
People v. Carroll (Rochester City Court 2008)
Behm v. Campbell (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2006)
Houghton v. Culver (District Court, W.D. New York 2006)
Gibson v. Superintendent Of New Jersey Department Of Law And Public Safety-Division Of State Police (3d Cir. 2005)
Gibson v. Superintendent of New Jersey Department of Law & Public Safety-Division of State Police (3d Cir. 2005)
Clark v. Kentucky (District Court, E.D. Kentucky 2002)
People v. Mohamadou (Criminal Court of the City of New York 1999)
Carl Nelson v. George Jashurek, Patrolman (3d Cir. 1997)
Nelson v. Jashurek (3d Cir. 1997)
In re Charles M. (NYC Family Court 1987)
People v. Rech (Monroe County Court 2017)
People v. Cox (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2015)
People v. Perez (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2008)
People v. Ferreira (Criminal Court of the City of New York 2005)
In re Kara M. (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1997)
People v. Napoli (New York Supreme Court 1996)
People v. Greene (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 1995)
Heck v. Humphrey (Supreme Court of the United States 1994)
Ashanti v. City of New York (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York 2024)
Banyan v. Sikorski (District Court, S.D. New York 2021)

This list shows which later cases cite this one. It does not say how they treated it, and no review of that has been done. Not a substitute for Shepard’s or KeyCite — verify before relying.

Opinion of the Court

OPINION OF THE COURT

Memorandum.

The order of the County Court, St. Lawrence County, should be reversed and the information dismissed.

Penal Law § 205.30 defines resisting arrest as intentionally preventing or attempting to prevent a police officer "from effecting an authorized arrest”. The People concede that the *677officer did not have any ground to believe that defendant was committing, had committed or was about to commit an offense. That being the case, defendant’s arrest was not "authorized,” nor did her striking his arm in reaction to the officer’s attempt to detain her constitute harassment.

There being no probable cause that authorized defendant’s arrest, she cannot be guilty of resisting arrest. Penal Law § 35.27, as its title indicates, is concerned with the defense of justification and does not amend Penal Law § 205.30 to make resistance to an unauthorized arrest an offense (People v Carneglia, 63 AD2d 734; People v Harewood, 63 AD2d 876; see, People v Stevenson, 31 NY2d 108). To the extent that People v Simms (36 AD2d 23) and People v Lattanzio (35 AD2d 313) may be read to indicate otherwise, they are not to be followed.

Chief Judge Wachtler and Judges Meyer, Simons, Kaye, Alexander, Titone and Hancock, Jr., concur in memorandum.

Order reversed, etc.

Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.