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Criminal Law Supreme Court Slip Opinion

by Zigadto, Janet

 

SC20547 - State v. Haughwout (Search & seizure; whether conviction for interfering with, and disobeying, officer violates fourth amendment where defendant argues that he was unlawfully detained; whether new crime exception to exclusionary rule applies; "The defendant, Austin Grant Haughwout, appeals from judgments of conviction on charges arising from, respectively, two separate incidents between him and various officers of the Clinton Police Department in July, 2015. The defendant claims that evidence of certain events during the first incident, which occurred in the parking lot of a local library on the night of July 19, 2015, should have been suppressed because those events were the result of an unconstitutional investigatory detention. The state responds to this claim by arguing that, in light of the totality of the circumstances presented, the police had a reasonable and articulable suspicion that the defendant had been engaged in criminal activity and that an investigatory detention was, therefore, constitutional under Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 21–22, 88 S. Ct. 1868, 20 L. Ed. 2d 889 (1968). We disagree with the state and, accordingly, reverse the trial court's judgment of conviction as to the offenses relating to the incident that occurred on July 19, 2015. The defendant also claims that his conviction of two counts of assault of public safety personnel, specifically a peace officer, related to the second incident, which occurred inside of the Clinton Police Department on July 22, 2015, is infirm because (1) the state's evidence was insufficient to support his conviction, and (2) the trial court erred when instructing the jury. The state concedes that a new trial is required with respect to one of the assault charges due to instructional error but contends that the defendant's remaining claims lack merit. We agree with the state and, therefore, affirm in part and reverse in part the trial court's judgment of conviction related to the incident that occurred on July 22, 2015.")