Appellant, a juvenile found delinquent for disorderly conduct, challenges his adjudication on the grounds that he should not have been found guilty of disorderly conduct since his words did not amount to fighting words or incite a breach of the peace. Appellant also requests that the commitment order be remanded for clarification. We affirm appellant’s conviction, but remand for correction of the commitment order.
Our analysis leads us to conclude that appellant was properly adjudicated delinquеnt for disorderly conduct because his nonverbal acts disturbed or interfered with an arrest and, therefore, breached the peace. See L.A.T. v. State,
Officer Burton was called to the Malibu Grand Prix to investigate a fight. By the timе he arrived, about half of the individuals had departed. However, after some investigation, the officer determined that one of the remaining adults should be arrested. However, he was hindered in making that arrest because of appellant’s actions and words. Appellant repeatedly came so close to the officer and the arrestee that the officer had to repeatedly push him back and tell him to stay away. Appellant’s physical action was accompanied by loud verbal рrotests and name-calling, particularly calling the manager, who was standing nearby, a “motherfucker.” When appellant would not calm down and stay away from the officer, the officer arrested appellant for disorderly conduct.
The disorderly conduct statute prohibits acts that are of such a nature to “corrupt the public morals, of outrage the sense of public decency, or affect the peace and quiet of persons who may witness them, or engages in brawling or fighting, or engages in such conduct as to constitute a breach of the peace or disorderly conduct-” § 877.03, Fla. Stat. (1995). In order to avoid constitutional overbreadth, the Florida Supreme Court limited the application of thе statute to words which:
“by their very utterance ... inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the pеace,” (citations omitted); or to*1172 words, known to be false, reporting some physical hazard in cirсumstances where such a report creates a clear and present danger of bodily harm to others. We construe the statute so that no words except “fighting words” or words like shouts of “fire” in a crowded theater fall within its proscription.
State v. Saunders,
In C.P. v. State,
We conclude that appellant’s words and actions did incite an immediate brеach of the peace because under L.A.T., appellant’s nonverbal acts disturbed or interfered with the arrest and, therefore, breached the peace. In L.A.T., the court concluded that defendant’s loud and profane screaming at the officer was constitutionally protected speech, but specifically distinguished that situation from one where the speech incited actions on thе part of others or where the defendant himself took nonverbal action. The L.A.T. court observed thаt while the defendant’s speech there created a “scene,” the First Amendment does not permit imрosition of criminal sanctions for making a scene. In the instant case, appellant’s actions аmounted to more than creating a scene; his actions actually hindered the arrest of a suspect, amounting to a breach of the peace. Given appellant’s nonverbal acts in combination with his speech, we conclude that the court was correct in adjudicating him a delinquent on the basis of his violation of the disorderly conduct statute.
Appellant has also challenged the commitment order on the ground that it did not specify the maximum term of commitment. The state concedes error. We agree. Since the maximum adult sentence for disorderly conduct is sixty days (§§ 877.03, 775.082(4)(b), Fla.Stat. (1995)), we remand for cоrrection and direct the trial court to specify the term of commitment.
We also note that the order of commitment was incorrect insofar as it states that appellant pled guilty to disorderly conduct. Rather, he was found guilty by the court of disorderly conduct, but entered a negotiated plea of guilty tо the other two offenses. Accordingly, we remand for correction of the commitment order to reflect appellant’s true status.
