State v. Valentine, No. 62274-4
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of Washington |
| Writing for the Court | ALEXANDER; DURHAM; SMITH; MADSEN; SANDERS |
| Citation | 935 P.2d 1294,132 Wn.2d 1 |
| Parties | The STATE of Washington, Respondent, v. Ronald Floyd VALENTINE, Petitioner. |
| Docket Number | No. 62274-4 |
| Decision Date | 01 May 1997 |
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v.
Ronald Floyd VALENTINE, Petitioner.
En Banc.
Decided May 1, 1997.
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Brian C. O'Brien, Spokane, for Petitioner.
Jim Sweetser, Spokane County Prosecutor, Kevin M. Korsmo, Deputy, Spokane, for Respondent.
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ALEXANDER, Justice.
Ronald Valentine obtained review of a decision of the Court of Appeals, Division Three, affirming his conviction on a charge of third degree assault, a charge that was based on an allegation that Valentine assaulted a law enforcement officer while the officer was engaged in performance of his official duties. Valentine contends on appeal that the trial court erred in instructing the jury that "[t]he use of force to prevent an unlawful arrest which threatens only a loss of freedom ... is not reasonable." Instruction 17, Clerk's Papers at 71. 1 He also contends that this court should overturn his conviction and dismiss the assault charge for what he claims was outrageous conduct of the Spokane police, which violated his right to due process of law. We reject both contentions and, therefore, affirm.
[935 P.2d 1295] In the early afternoon of May 16, 1990, in downtown Spokane, Spokane Police Officer Rick Robinson observed what he believed was a "suspicious subject on the corner at First and Jefferson." Verbatim Report of Proceedings (VRP) at 88. Upon making this observation, Robinson radioed another Spokane police officer, John Moore, and asked him if he knew the person standing at First and Jefferson "wearing a black coat." VRP at 28. Moore proceeded to that location and observed a person wearing a black jacket enter a car. Although Moore was unable to immediately identify that person, he followed the car as the person drove it away.
According to Moore, the car soon made a turn without signaling. Moore, who was driving an unmarked car, advised Robinson over his radio that he was going to stop the car. He then attempted to do so by placing a rotating blue light on his dashboard, flashing his headlights, and
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honking his horn. While attempting to stop the automobile, Moore recognized that the driver of the car he was following was Ronald Valentine. 2 Moore broadcast over his police radio that he was following Valentine and that Valentine was not heeding Moore's efforts to stop him. Shortly thereafter, Valentine stopped his automobile and Moore pulled his car in behind him. Officer Robinson also pulled in behind Moore as did several other officers who had overheard the radio broadcasts.All of the police officers who arrived at the scene testified at trial. Their version of the events that transpired after the traffic stop varied dramatically from Valentine's version of events. Moore said that upon confronting Valentine he asked to see his license and registration. This, he indicated, prompted Valentine to ask, "Why?" VRP at 37. Moore said that he then told Valentine that he was being cited for failing to signal for a turn. According to Moore, Valentine said that since Moore had given him a ticket a few days earlier, he had all the information that he needed. Moore said that he again asked for the driver's license and registration and Valentine responded by saying that "you ... cops are just harassing me. I'm Black, and I'm tired of the harassment." VRP at 38. After what Moore said was his third request of Valentine to produce his driver's license and registration, Valentine produced it.
Moore testified that he asked Valentine for his current address and that Valentine told Moore to "[l]ook it up." VRP at 41. Moore then asked Valentine if he was going to cooperate and sign a citation and, according to Moore, Valentine said that he would not do so. Moore then informed Valentine that he was being placed under "arrest for failure to cooperate .... [and] refusing to sign an infraction." VRP at 45.
Moore also testified that after Valentine walked to the front of the car to show Moore that the car Valentine had
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been driving had a front license plate, Valentine returned to his car door, opened it, and started to reach inside the car. Moore said that he told Valentine to stay out of the car and grabbed Valentine's left arm to prevent him from reaching into the car. Robinson also claimed that he grabbed Valentine's right arm in a similar effort to keep Valentine from entering his car. Valentine, according to Moore, responded to their actions by spinning toward Moore and punching him in the side of the head. Robinson also claimed that he was hit in the ensuing skirmish.Spokane Police Officers Jones, Webb, and Yates all testified that they joined the scuffle when Valentine began to struggle with Moore and Robinson. They said that they eventually subdued Valentine and forced him to the ground. Yates, who indicated that he had decided to assist Moore in effecting the traffic stop when he heard over the radio that it was Valentine who was being pursued, 3 testified that when he became involved in the fracas, he felt Valentine's hand on his [935 P.2d 1296] gun butt. He said that in order to subdue Valentine, he had to apply a "carotid hold" 4 to Valentine's neck.
Valentine was eventually placed in handcuffs and was transported to jail. A nurse supervisor at the jail refused to admit Valentine because of his apparent injuries. Valentine was then taken to a hospital where Moore presented him with a citation for failing to signal for a turn. Valentine signed the citation. Valentine was later booked into the Spokane County Jail where he was charged by information with two counts of third degree assault, it being alleged that he assaulted Moore and Robinson while they were performing "official duties." Clerk's Papers at 1.
Valentine testified at trial on his own behalf. He claimed
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that because his turn signals were not functioning, he used hand signals to indicate his intention to turn. He also said that he stopped his car as soon as it was possible for him to do so. Valentine indicated that before reaching inside his car, he told Moore he was going to lock his car in order to protect some personal items. He denied that he told Moore to look up his address for himself. He also said that he did not throw the first punch, asserting that any blows he delivered were in self-defense and amounted to reasonable force to protect himself from an illegal arrest. Valentine contended that he would have signed a citation on the scene if he had been presented with one. Valentine was found guilty of assaulting Moore and not guilty of assaulting Robinson.Valentine asks us to decide whether the trial court erred in instructing the jury regarding the employment of force to resist an unlawful arrest. Instruction 17 reads as follows:
A person unlawfully arrested by an officer may resist the arrest; the means used to resist an unlawful arrest must be reasonable and proportioned to the injury attempted upon the party sought to be arrested. The use of force to prevent an unlawful arrest which threatens only a loss of freedom, if you so find, is not reasonable.
Clerk's Papers at 71 (emphasis added).
Valentine claims that the instruction is faulty insofar as it informs the jury that a person may not use force to resist an unlawful arrest which threatens only a loss of freedom. He asserts that it is the law in this state that reasonable and proportional force may always be employed to resist an unlawful arrest. Valentine bases his argument to a large extent on this court's opinion in State v. Rousseau, 40 Wash.2d 92, 241 P.2d 447 (1952). There, a person who was being unlawfully arrested used what this court described to be the equivalent of a "deadly weapon" when
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he pushed a police officer who was in the act of arresting him into the path of an oncoming automobile. In concluding that the jury could have found that the defendant used unnecessary force in resisting his arrest, we said "[i]t is the law that a person illegally arrested by an officer may resist that arrest," and suggested further that force could be employed in doing so, but not with "extreme measures" if only a loss of liberty is threatened. Rousseau, 40 Wash.2d at 94, 241 P.2d 447.At the outset, we note that it is unnecessary for us to decide the validity of instruction 17 as it might affect Valentine's trial. That is so because the claimed error of law in the instruction makes a difference if and only if the arrest of Valentine was unlawful. Significantly, Valentine has never claimed that his arrest was unlawful, either in the trial court or the Court of Appeals. Valentine's trial theory, rather, was that the Spokane [935 P.2d 1297] police officers assaulted him during the course of the arrest and that he was merely defending himself against that assault. Consequently, neither the trial judge nor the jury was asked to decide if Valentine's arrest was unlawful. The question of whether instruction 17 improperly skewed the result of the jury verdict does not, therefore, arise, because in the absence of an unlawful arrest, there can be no issue as to whether one can use force to resist an unlawful arrest. Thus, it was not necessary for this court to accept review of this case in order to answer the question of whether it is lawful in Washington to use reasonably proportioned force to resist an unlawful arrest.
Nevertheless, both parties have placed that issue sharply in focus both in their briefing and at oral argument, which consisted largely of discussion of this very issue. In our review of the law, beginning with Rousseau, we have discovered that cases from our court and from the Court of Appeals have created confusion as to whether one who is illegally arrested may resist the arrest when the arresting officer's acts threaten only a loss of liberty. For example, although the Court of Appeals has cited
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Rousseau for the proposition that a defendant was...To continue reading
Request your trial
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State v. D.E.D., No. 33858-4-III.
...even if they were acting outside the strictures of the constitution. Id. at 473-76, 901 P.2d 286.7 In State v. Valentine, 132 Wash.2d 1, 935 P.2d 1294 (1997), the court, rejecting an old common law rule, determined that a person cannot respond to police illegality by performing a criminal a......
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State v. Cormier, No. 18287-8-III.
...even illegally, may not assault the officer, if the arrest threatens only a loss of freedom. State v. Valentine, 132 Wash.2d 1, 21-22, 935 P.2d 1294 Manuel Cormier rode his bicycle by and stared at police executing a search warrant. They stopped him. He refused to cooperate and assaulted an......
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State v. Roberts, No. 65512-0.
...if necessary, the right to assistance of counsel at any critical stage in a criminal prosecution. State v. Valentine, 132 Wash.2d 1, 16, 935 P.2d 1294 (1997)(citing Coleman v. Alabama, 399 U.S. 1, 7, 90 S.Ct. 1999, 26 L.Ed.2d 387 (1970); Heinemann v. Whitman County, 105 Wash.2d 796, 799-800......
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State v. Kolesnik, No. 35837-9-II.
...and proportional force to avoid an unlawful arrest when acting in an attempt to avoid injury. State v. Valentine, 132 Wash.2d 1, 21, 935 P.2d 1294 (1997). An individual may not use force against an officer making an unlawful arrest if he or she faces only a loss of freedom. Valentine, 132 W......
-
State v. D.E.D., No. 33858-4-III.
...even if they were acting outside the strictures of the constitution. Id. at 473-76, 901 P.2d 286.7 In State v. Valentine, 132 Wash.2d 1, 935 P.2d 1294 (1997), the court, rejecting an old common law rule, determined that a person cannot respond to police illegality by performing a criminal a......
-
State v. Cormier, No. 18287-8-III.
...even illegally, may not assault the officer, if the arrest threatens only a loss of freedom. State v. Valentine, 132 Wash.2d 1, 21-22, 935 P.2d 1294 Manuel Cormier rode his bicycle by and stared at police executing a search warrant. They stopped him. He refused to cooperate and assaulted an......
-
State v. Roberts, No. 65512-0.
...if necessary, the right to assistance of counsel at any critical stage in a criminal prosecution. State v. Valentine, 132 Wash.2d 1, 16, 935 P.2d 1294 (1997)(citing Coleman v. Alabama, 399 U.S. 1, 7, 90 S.Ct. 1999, 26 L.Ed.2d 387 (1970); Heinemann v. Whitman County, 105 Wash.2d 796, 799-800......
-
State v. Kolesnik, No. 35837-9-II.
...and proportional force to avoid an unlawful arrest when acting in an attempt to avoid injury. State v. Valentine, 132 Wash.2d 1, 21, 935 P.2d 1294 (1997). An individual may not use force against an officer making an unlawful arrest if he or she faces only a loss of freedom. Valentine, 132 W......