State v. Mazur
| Decision Date | 18 September 2018 |
| Docket Number | No. COA17-736,COA17-736 |
| Citation | 817 S.E.2d 919 (Table) |
| Parties | STATE of North Carolina v. Michael Stanley MAZUR and Annemarie Mazur, Defendants. |
| Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
Attorney General Joshua H. Stein, by Solicitor General Matthew W. Sawchak and Deputy Solicitor General Ryan Y. Park, for the State.
Richard Croutharmel, Raleigh, for Defendant-Appellant Michael Mazur.
Appellate Defender Glenn Gerding, by Assistant Appellate Defender Kathleen M. Joyce and Assistant Appellate Defender Aaron Thomas Johnson, for Defendant-Appellant Anne-Marie Mazur.
Michael Stanley Mazur and Anne-Marie Mazur1 (collectively "Defendants") appeal from judgments following jury convictions for felony stalking. Defendants argue that the trial court erred by denying their motions to dismiss for insufficient evidence, and that the felony stalking statute, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-277.3A, is unconstitutional as applied to their actions because they were engaged in protected expression under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
This appeal arises from the culmination of vindictive neighborly behavior that spiraled out of control—beyond annoyances and pranks—and into a serious violation of privacy, dignity, and the laws of our State. After careful review of the record and applicable case law, we hold that Defendants received a trial free from error and that Defendants’ constitutional rights were not violated.
The evidence at trial tended to show the following:
In 1996, Defendants, with their six-month-old daughter, moved into a house at 205 Dulcimer Lane, in Zebulon, North Carolina. Years later, in 2002, Wilbert and Elizabeth O’Neal began renting the house directly across the street. The two families co-existed without issue for almost ten years, until, in 2010, a noise complaint erupted into a six-year battle ending with Defendants’ convictions.
On 30 March 2010, Anne-Marie confronted Mr. O’Neal at his house to ask him to turn down his music. Mr. O’Neal cursed her out and told her to get off of his property. Her response was to call the police.
Zebulon Police Officer David Wanamaker ("Officer Wanamaker") received the initial noise complaint later that day from Anne-Marie about the loud music coming from Mr. O’Neal’s property. Upon arrival, Officer Wanamaker heard the music and approached Mr. O’Neal. After a short, heated discussion with Mr. O’Neal, Officer Wanamaker cited Mr. O’Neal for a violation of the local noise ordinance. This was only the first of many police complaints filed over the course of several years by both Defendants and the O’Neals.
Following the initial confrontation, Anne-Marie also decided to nickname Mr. O’Neal "froggy." She derived the nickname from Mr. O’Neal’s calling her "a fat a** cracker b***h[,]" and that, according to her testimony, "Mr. O’Neal likes to talk about the size of [her] rear end, so [she] talked to Mr. O’Neal about his eyes being ugly." Defendants also placed two statues on their property facing the O’Neals’ house: one of a frog—which was stated as representative of Mr. O’Neal—and the other was of a pig with its hind-end raised to the air toward the O’Neals’—which was stated as representative of Mrs. O’Neal. Anne-Marie had also begun wearing "googley-eye" glasses in an attempt to mock Mr. O’Neal’s appearance.
Defendants and the O’Neals then began recording the others’ comings and goings and interactions, with the use of handheld video cameras.
On 27 March 2012, with the conflict continuing to devolve, Officer Robert Prichard ("Officer Prichard") arrived to the neighborhood in response to yet another complaint, this one from Mr. O’Neal. Officer Prichard pulled into the neighborhood with his windows rolled down, a practice which became customary when responding to a complaint by either party, and heard what he said sounded like kids yelling: When he reached the O’Neal’s house, Mr. O’Neal showed Officer Prichard a series of videos from the previous few days depicting Defendants’ harassment of the O’Neals. Officer Prichard then approached a third neighbor to ask about Defendants’ treatment of the O’Neals; the neighbor reported hearing Defendants call Mr. O’Neal "froggy," "frog-eyed motherf***er," and "an old frog-eyed n****r."
Following the neighbor’s report, Officer Prichard arrested Defendants, brought them before a Wake County magistrate, and swore out criminal warrants for ethnic intimidation. The charges for ethnic intimidation were later amended to charge Defendants with misdemeanor stalking. Along with these charges, the magistrate issued a "No Contact" order directing Defendants to have "NO CONTACT WITH ALLEGED VICITM IN ANY MANNER." Defendants were released on bond.
By the following week, Defendants had installed, throughout their yard, three high-powered surveillance cameras with infrared-night-vision capabilities.2 The cameras were angled to continually monitor the O’Neals’ house and driveway. Defendants said they set up the cameras that way to allow them to prove they never stepped foot on the O’Neals’ property should they be accused of so doing. The cameras directed a constant beam of red light into the O’Neals’ home, making them feel "very uncomfortable" and like they were being "watched for no reason" and "violated." Another neighbor reported feeling "uncomfortable" having the cameras pointed in their direction.
In addition to the camera surveillance, Defendants continued to make "oink" noises at Mrs. O’Neal, and in their car followed Mr. O’Neal and his son walking through the neighborhood. Michael at times also drove slowly behind the O’Neals’ son while he was on his bicycle in the neighborhood.
In May 2012, six weeks after the installation of the surveillance cameras, police officers executed a search warrant on Defendants’ home and seized the cameras. Along with the cameras, officers seized 1,834 hours of video recordings made in the six-week period. This level of surveillance was "[m]ore than most police operations." Police also found and seized a calendar for April 2012, which had entries about "loud music," "truck blasting," and "a**hole blast in wife’s car." The calendar also included handwritten notes referring to Mr. O’Neal as "frog" and "a**hole," and Mrs. O’Neal as "pig," and noted their times of arrival and departure for many days.
After their cameras were confiscated, Defendants spent the summer preparing what they claimed were "Halloween" decorations, which they put on display beginning in October lasting through December. The decorations included eyeballs made out of Tupperware bowls, with "red lines to look like veins" and light bulbs inside. Defendants also hung eyeglasses with "google eyes" painted on them from the trees and mailbox post facing the O’Neals’ property. While trick-or-treating with her children, one of the other residents in the neighborhood asked Anne-Marie about the decorations; Anne-Marie replied their intent was to convey the message that they—Defendants—"had their eyes on Mr. O’Neal."
In February 2013, several officers took note of false noise complaints filed by Defendants against Mr. O’Neal. On 20 February 2013, Officer Prichard received a call from Anne-Marie complaining about Mr. O’Neal’s music. As Officer Prichard entered the neighborhood, he rolled down his windows and observed that no music could be heard.
A few weeks later, on 15 March 2013, Officer Prichard received another complaint from Anne-Marie regarding Mr. O’Neal’s music. On this day, Officer Prichard actually waited around the corner with his windows rolled down to listen for music, but he heard none.
On 20 October 2014, an unmarked patrol car was following Mr. O’Neal’s truck as he turned into the neighborhood and pulled into his driveway. The officer had his windows down and heard no music, but almost immediately received notice from the police dispatcher that Anne-Marie had just emailed to complain that "she had just heard Mr. O’Neal pulling into the driveway with his noise blasting." Apart from the initial noise citation, despite having received countless calls and several hundred emails from Anne-Marie complaining about Mr. O’Neal since the No Contact order was entered, police never cited Mr. O’Neal.
On 8 May 2013, in Wake County District Court, Judge Dan Nagle found Defendants each guilty of misdemeanor stalking. Both Defendants appealed to superior court and were ultimately indicted on 6 January 2015 for felony stalking.3 Defendants were tried jointly on 18 April 2016, and the jury found them both not guilty of misdemeanor stalking and guilty of felony stalking.
Defendants timely appealed.
Defendants, while tried jointly, have presented separate arguments on appeal. To ensure fairness and transparency, while remaining concise in our holding, we will address each of Defendants’ overlapping arguments together, but will highlight the disparities in their respective arguments and resolve any issues unique to either of the two Defendants. Defendants generally contend that the trial court erred by denying their motions to dismiss because there was insufficient evidence to support the felony stalking charges. Defendants also assert that, as applied to them, N.C. Gen. Stat. § 14-277.3A —the felony stalking statute—impermissibly restricts their rights to free speech under the First Amendment. For reasons we will explain, we disagree.
Our Court applies a de novo standard of review to appeals from the denial of a motion to dismiss. State v. Smith , 186 N.C. App. 57, 62, 650 S.E.2d 29, 33 (2007). "When ruling on a defendant’s motion to dismiss, the trial court must determine whether there is substantial evidence (1) of each essential element of the offense charged, and (2) that the defendant is the perpetrator of the offense." Id. at 62, 650 S.E.2d at 33 (citing State v. Earnhardt , 307 N.C. 62, 65-66, 296 S.E.2d 649, 651 (1982) ; N.C. Gen. Stat. § 15A-1227 (2005) )....
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