City of East Cleveland v. Pratt
City of East Cleveland v. Pratt
Opinion of the Court
The sole question presented to this court is the construction and legislative intent of the ordinance.
The ordinance provides in pertinent part:
“No person shall knowingly give a false * * * report to the police department * * * with intent to mislead * * * such officer
The facts are undisputed. The defendant violated the ordinance. In her confession she said: “* * * I called the police and told them a man had broken into my apartment and robbed and beat me. The police and detectives came and questioned me about the robbery and I told them a lie about how it happened. ’ ’
At an earlier point in her confession, the defendant stated:
“ * * * Billy asked me what I was going to do about the $1,200 [the money which she had previously stolen from her father]. I said I didn’t know. He figured that if all of the money was taken from my father’s room and we made it look like a robbery that I wouldn’t get bounced (trouble) from my father.”
The defendant gave a false report to the police when she called them on the telephone to summon an officer, and she gave a false report to the police when they came to her apartment in answer to her call. She made these false reports to the police with “intent to mislead * * * such officer.”
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is, therefore, reversed, as contrary to law.
Judgment reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.