People v. Vasquez

• Citation: 240 Mich. App. 239,612 N.W.2d 162
• Decision Date: 02 June 2000
• Docket Number: Docket No. 222895.
• Parties: PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Mark John VASQUEZ, Jr., Defendant-Appellee.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Michigan (US)

612 N.W.2d 162

240 Mich. App. 239

PEOPLE of the State of Michigan, Plaintiff-Appellant, v. Mark John VASQUEZ, Jr., Defendant-Appellee.

Docket No. 222895.

Court of Appeals of Michigan.

Submitted February 1, 2000, at Grand Rapids.

Decided March 17, 2000, at 9:10 a.m.

Released for Publication June 2, 2000.

Jennifer M. Granholm, Attorney General, Thomas L. Casey, Solicitor General, Larry J. Burdick, Prosecuting Attorney, and Risa N. Scully, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, for the people.

Joseph T. Barberi, Mt. Pleasant, for the defendant.

Before: FITZGERALD, P.J., and SAAD and WHITBECK, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

The prosecution appeals the trial court's decision to grant defendant Mark John Vasquez, Jr.'s, motion to quash a criminal information charging him with resisting and obstructing a police officer, M.C.L. § 750.479; MSA 28.747. We reverse and remand.

I. Basic Facts And Procedural History

The State Police received a complaint about a loud party. While investigating the party, a trooper approached Vasquez and asked him his name and age. Vasquez allegedly gave the trooper a false age and the real name of a different person, who was also a minor. Later that same evening, while being processed ("booked") at the State Police post, another trooper recognized Vazquez, thus revealing his true identity.

The prosecutor charged Vasquez with resisting and obstructing an officer pursuant to M.C.L. § 750.479; MSA 28.747, which states:

Any person who shall knowingly and willfully obstruct, resist or oppose any sheriff, coroner, township treasurer, constable or other officer or person duly authorized, in serving, or attempting to serve or execute any process, rule or order made or issued by lawful authority, or who shall resist any officer in the execution of any ordinance, by law, or any rule, order or resolution made, issued, or passed by the common council of any city board of trustees, or common council or village council of any incorporated village, or township board of any township or who shall assault, beat or wound any sheriff, coroner, township treasurer, constable or other officer duly authorized, while serving, or attempting to serve or execute any such process, rule or order, or for having served, or attempted to serve or execute the same, or who shall so obstruct, resist, oppose, assault, beat or wound any of the above named officers, or any other person or persons authorized by law to maintain and preserve the peace, in their lawful acts, attempts and efforts to maintain, preserve and keep the peace, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment in the state prison not more than two years, or by a fine of not more than one thousand dollars. [MCL 750.479; MSA 28.747 (emphasis supplied).]

The trial court did not take any testimony regarding the offense. Rather, the trial court proceeded to interpret the statute to determine if it prohibited lying to a law enforcement agent, relying heavily on this Court's reasoning in People v. Philabaun, 234 Mich.App. 471, 595 N.W.2d 502 (1999) (Philabaun I.)

Preliminarily, the trial court noted that it was strictly construing M.C.L. § 750.479; MSA 28.747, because to do otherwise might subject Vasquez to the application of a vague law. The trial court reasoned that Vasquez did not "resist" or "oppose" arrest because that would require a physical act.¹ The trial court then focused on "obstruction," which it did not consider to require a defendant to hinder an arrest with a physical act.² Although conceding that a false statement may sometimes constitute an "obstruction," the trial court concluded that it must hinder an investigation under all circumstances. Yet, according to the trial court, Vasquez' lie neither impeded the investigation into whether he had been drinking alcoholic beverages nor prevented the officers from booking him on the underlying charge even if it might have resulted in the criminal complaint misidentifying him. Thus, according to the trial court, Vasquez' alleged lie to the officer did not constitute obstruction within the meaning of the statute.

II. Lying As Resisting And Obstructing

A. Standard Of Review

The prosecution argues that deliberately giving a police officer a false name during an investigation constitutes the offense of resisting and obstructing an officer pursuant to M.C.L. § 750.479; MSA 28.747. Ordinarily, this Court would review a trial court's decision to quash an information solely for an abuse of discretion. People v. Hamblin, 224 Mich.App. 87, 91, 568 N.W.2d 339 (1997). This case, however, also presents a question of law, which we review de novo. People v. Nimeth, 236 Mich.App. 616, 620, 601 N.W.2d 393 (1999).

B.Philabaun II

After the trial court reached its decision in this case, the Michigan Supreme Court considered and overruled the authority on which the trial court primarily relied: Philabaun I. See People v. Philabaun, 461 Mich. 255, 262, 602 N.W.2d 371 (1999) (Philabaun II).³ At issue in Philabaun I and II was whether the defendant's decision to refuse to permit the police to execute a search warrant for obtaining a blood sample was resisting and obstructing within the meaning of the statute because the defendant was polite at all times and did not physically resist the police. The majority in this Court, like the trial court in the instant case, concluded that— absent physical resistance, threats to resist physically, or other less passive and more aggressive conduct, even if only verbal— the defendant had not resisted or obstructed an officer. Philabaun I, supra at 475-480, 595 N.W.2d 502. Judge Murphy, however, dissented, and the Supreme Court adopted his reasoning in Philabaun II. Id. at 483-488, 595 N.W.2d 502; Philabaun II, supra at 263, 602 N.W.2d 371.

By adopting Judge Murphy's dissent, the Supreme Court emphasized two important principles with regard to applying the resisting and obstructing statute. First, passive or strictly verbal conduct without a physical element can constitute resisting, obstructing, or opposing an officer or other official listed in the statute. Philabaun II, supra at 263-264, 602 N.W.2d 371. Second, whether conduct fits within the statute should be decided case by case with special attention to the facts. Id. Overall, the Supreme Court interpreted the statute expansively, obviating the need to provide a further definition of what constitutes resisting, obstructing, or opposing.⁴ We add that the plain language of the statute requires this conduct to be done "knowingly and wilfully." See Kassab v. Michigan Basic Property Ins. Ass'n, 441 Mich. 433, 460, 491 N.W.2d 545 (1992).

In the context of this case, we interpret Philabaun II to mean that a prosecutor must support a criminal information charging resisting and obstructing under M.C.L. § 750.479; MSA 28.747 with competent evidence showing that there is probable cause to believe that (1) the conduct alleged, whether active or passive, obstructed, resisted, or opposed (2) any of the listed officials (3) in their described duties and (4) the alleged conduct was done knowingly and wilfully. If the evidence is deficient, meaning that it is absent or does not establish probable cause, on even one of these elements, then a trial court does not abuse its discretion by granting a defendant's motion to quash the information. See M.C.L. § 766.13; MSA 28.931; People v. Northey, 231 Mich.App. 568, 574-575, 591 N.W.2d 227 (1998). C. Application

In this case, the very limited but undisputed evidence on the record tended⁵ to show that Vasquez lied to the trooper about his name and age when the trooper asked him for that information. His act was, relatively speaking, passive. Nevertheless, it suggested that Vasquez wished to prevent the State Police from instituting any legal action against him as an individual and would actually hinder law enforcement agents from taking action against him, which fits under the broad definition of resisting, obstructing, or opposing. We see a marked similarity between the effect of saying "no" to a police request, as in Philabaun, and giving false and misleading information in response to a similar request by a State Police trooper; both responses presented an obstacle to the investigating law enforcement agent's attempt to discharge his legal duties.

We have no reason to believe that Vasquez did not know that he was giving someone else's name and a false age when he made the statement, that he did not know that he was giving the statement to a trooper, or that he made the statement involuntarily. Thus, there was sufficient evidence to meet the probable cause standard with regard to whether his act was knowing and wilful. Furthermore, Vasquez does not contend that a State Police trooper falls outside the protection of M.C.L. § 750.479; MSA 28.747 and his argument that the trooper was not acting within the scope of duties described in the statute is without merit. Here, the trooper was lawfully attempting to "maintain, preserve and keep the peace" by investigating the complaint about the party and his suspicion that Vasquez was committing the offense of being a minor in possession of alcohol, M.C.L. § 436.1703; MSA 18.1175(703). Accordingly, with evidence on each element of the offense, the trial court abused its discretion by quashing the information. Northey, supra.

III. Vagueness

A. Standard Of Review

Vasquez argues that this Court should still affirm the trial court's decision in this case because the resisting and obstructing statute does not warn that lying to the police is unlawful and the statute, therefore, is impermissibly vague. Whether a statute is unconstitutionally void for vagueness is a question of law that this Court reviews de novo. In re Gosnell, 234 Mich.App. 326, 333, 594 N.W.2d 90 (1999).

B. Legal Test For Vagueness

In order to be constitutional, a penal statute must define a crime "`with sufficient definiteness that ordinary people can understand what conduct is...