State v. Pagano

• Decision Date: 01 September 1995
• Docket Number: No. 69,69
• Parties: , 108 Ed. Law Rep. 283 STATE of Maryland v. Susan Hope PAGANO. ,
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 129

341 Md. 129

669 A.2d 1339, 108 Ed. Law Rep. 283

STATE of Maryland v. Susan Hope PAGANO.

No. 69, Sept. Term, 1995.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

Jan. 16, 1996.

Kathryn Grill Graeff, Assistant Attorney General, (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Attorney General, on brief), Baltimore, for petitioner.

Margaret A. Mead (Roland Walker, Walker & Van Bavel, P.A., on brief), Baltimore, for respondent.

Argued before MURPHY, C.J., and ELDRIDGE, RODOWSKY, CHASANOW, KARWACKI, BELL and RAKER, JJ.

MURPHY, Chief Judge.

The issue in this case is whether lying to a police officer during an investigation and before the initiation of judicial proceedings and instructing others to do the same constitutes an obstruction of justice under Maryland Code (1957, 1992 Rep.Vol., 1995 Supp.) Article 27, § 26. That section provides:

Intimidating or corrupting jurors, etc.; obstructing justice.

If any person by corrupt means or by threats or force endeavors to influence, intimidate, or impede any juror, witness, or court officer of any court of this State in the discharge of his duty, or by corrupt means or by threats or force obstructs, impedes, or endeavors to obstruct or impede the due administration of justice therein, he is liable to be prosecuted, and on conviction to be punished by fine not exceeding $10,000, or by imprisonment not exceeding 5 years, or both, according to the nature and aggravation of the offense.

(emphasis added).

I

According to the agreed statement of facts, Amy Haslup is a student who suffers from cerebral palsy. She is confined to a wheelchair and has little control over her body. She is blind and has the mental capacity of an infant.

Susan Pagano was Amy's teacher at the Ruth Parker Eason School in Glen Burnie, Maryland. On December 10, 1993, Pagano placed Amy in a storage closet after she "fussed" when a teacher's aide tried to remove her coat. Amy remained in the closet for over three hours. Pagano then called Amy's father who sent relatives to bring Amy home. When Amy's father and relatives noticed a red mark, scratches, and blood on Amy's arms, they brought her to the hospital. The attendant physician in the emergency room concluded that the marks on Amy's arms could not have been self-inflicted and reported the possible child abuse to the Anne Arundel County Police.

Pagano told her two teacher's aides to lie to the police and not mention the marks on Amy's arms or Pagano's putting Amy in a closet. On December 20, 1993, the police interviewed Pagano. She denied having any knowledge of Amy's injuries and stated that nothing unusual happened that day. The teacher's aides also lied to the police.

When one of the aides threatened to tell the truth, Pagano admitted to the principal that she had lied and told her aides to lie. On January 3, 1994, Pagano told the police she did not report Amy's injuries because she was afraid of Amy's father. She subsequently admitted that she put Amy in a closet and that she had lied and told her aides to lie to the police.

Pagano was indicted in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County for the common law crime of misconduct in office and for obstruction of justice. Pagano filed a motion to dismiss both counts of the indictment. At the June 8, 1994 hearing on Pagano's motion before Judge Chester Goudy, Pagano argued that a person can be charged with obstruction of justice only if there is a judicial proceeding pending and that obstructing or impeding a police investigation, absent such a judicial proceeding, cannot constitute obstruction of justice under Article 27 § 27. ¹ The trial court reserved its decision, and on June 10, 1994 granted Pagano's motion to dismiss the obstruction of justice charge. The court stated:

The Court has reviewed the statute and relevant case law, and holds that the relevant statute only proscribes acts committed after there has been some judicial action. The Mayne [v. State, 45 Md.App. 483, 414 A.2d 1 (1980) ] decision did not reach the issue currently before the Court. More importantly, the statute itself only proscribes acts that interfere with a pending judicial proceeding. The Court believes the word "therein" contained in the statute is not surplusage, but relates back to the phrase "of any court."

Therefore, the statute applies only after there has been some court involvement.

The state entered a nolle prosequi on the misconduct in office charge on June 30, 1994 and appealed the dismissal of the obstruction of justice charge. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed the trial court's judgment. State v. Pagano, 104 Md.App. 113, 655 A.2d 55 (1995). We granted certiorari to determine whether Pagano's alleged actions constitute obstruction of justice under § 26.

II

In construing the meaning of a word in any statute, "the cardinal rule is to ascertain and carry out the real legislative intention. The primary source of legislative intent is, of course, the language of the statute itself." Tucker v. Fireman's Fund Insurance Co., 308 Md. 69, 73, 517 A.2d 730 (1986). In some circumstances, we need not look beyond the statutory language to determine the legislative purpose. "Sometimes the language in question will be so clearly consistent with apparent purpose (and not productive of any absurd result) that further research will be unnecessary." Kaczorowski v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 309 Md. 505, 515, 525 A.2d 628 (1987); see also Morris v. Prince George's County, 319 Md. 597, 603, 573 A.2d 1346 (1990). Nonetheless, "[t]he 'meaning of the plainest language' is controlled by the context in which it appears...." Kaczorowski, supra, 309 Md. at 514, 525 A.2d 628. We may always consider evidence of legislative intent beyond the plain language of the statute. Id. at 514-15, 525 A.2d 628.

The State contends that Pagano's alleged actions violated the second prong of § 26 by "obstruct[ing] ... the due administration of justice." The term "therein" in the second prong of § 26, the State contends, refers "generally to the legal system of justice." Pagano's actions, it argues, are, therefore, prohibited by the second prong of the statute. We disagree. The State's proposed interpretation conflicts with the plain language of the statute, the legislative intent, and prior cases interpreting this and similar statutes.

We seek to read statutes "so that no word, clause, sentence or phrase is rendered surplusage, superfluous, meaningless, or nugatory." Montgomery County v. Buckman, 333 Md. 516, 524, 636 A.2d 448 (1994). By the State's interpretation, the term "therein" is unnecessary. By the plain language of the statute, however, the term "therein" refers to "any court of this State." See State v. Pagano, supra, 104 Md.App. at 115, 120, 655 A.2d 55. The statute, therefore, prohibits obstruction of the administration of justice in the courts. Since courts administer justice through judicial proceedings, the second prong, ordinarily, prohibits only actions aimed at obstructing or impeding a pending judicial proceeding. Likewise, since the duties of jurors, witnesses, and court officers usually arise in relation to judicial proceedings, the first prong also, ordinarily, requires a pending judicial proceeding. Thus, Pagano's actions do not fall within the meaning of § 26 because there was no judicial proceeding pending at the time of her actions.

The legislative history supports this interpretation of the statute. Section 26 was enacted by Chapter 450 of the Acts of 1853 in a bill entitled "AN ACT declaratory of the law concerning contempts of Court." Section 1 of the act limited the power of the courts to hold people in contempt to cases of "misbehaviour ... in the presence of the said courts, or so near thereto as to obstruct the administration of justice...." Section 2 of the act was very similar to the current § 26. ² The terms "administration of justice," as used in § 1 of the act, clearly required some nexus to the courts. It is reasonable to presume that the legislature intended the same meaning for the identical terms in § 2 of the act. Railroad Co. v. Lichtenberg, 176 Md. 383, 391, 4 A.2d 734 (1939), appeal dismissed, 308 U.S. 525, 60 S.Ct. 297, 84 L.Ed. 444 (1939). Thus, the legislature originally intended the terms "administration of justice" in § 26 to require a nexus to the court system and did not intend for those terms to refer generally to the legal system.

Amendments since 1853 have removed the requirement that violation of the statute be charged by indictment, increased the penalties, made stylistic changes, and renumbered the section. See, e.g., Ch. 555 of the Acts of 1972; Ch. 274 of the Acts of 1981; Ch. 223 of the Acts of 1993; Ch. 712 of the Acts of 1994. In its 1981 amendment, the legislature amended the phrase "in any court of this State" to read "of any court of this State." (emphasis added). The State contends that this amendment indicates a legislative intent to expand the scope of the statute beyond "acts which occurred at or near a court proceeding." A more reasonable interpretation of the change is that it was intended to expand obstruction of justice to acts that do not physically occur inside a court building and was, therefore, merely stylistic. No amendment to § 26 indicates a legislative intent to broaden the scope of the statute beyond the court system. ³

Prior cases interpreting this statute also support our conclusion that § 26 prohibits acts aimed at obstructing or impeding a pending judicial proceeding. Romans v. State of Maryland 178 Md. 588, 16 A.2d 642 (1940), cert. denied, 312 U.S. 695, 61 S.Ct. 732, 85 L.Ed. 1131 (1941), clearly limited the second prong of § 26 to the courts. In that case, the defendants were charged with obstruction of justice for allegedly attempting to get a witness to leave Baltimore City during the trial in which the witness was to testify. Discussing the obstruction of justice statute, we said that the general terms of the statute embrace various forms of obstruction. ...