People v. StilesPeople v. Stiles
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Defendant, Eugene Stiles, was convicted at a September 5, 1978, bench trial of obstructing or assaulting a police officer in the discharge of his duty,
Defendant contends that his actions were justified because the police had unlawfully restrained his freedom and that the trial court erred in finding him guilty. We disagree for the reasons set forth below.
At 10 p.m. on December 9, 1977, two police officers responded to a call to investigate a family disturbance at the apartment of Nancy Stiles, who was separated from defendant at the time. The officers were informed that Mrs. Stiles had phoned in the complaint. When the officers approached the apartment, Mrs. Stiles answered the door and permitted them to come into the vestibule. The officers noted that Mrs. Stiles was crying and shaking and that the living room of the apartment was a shambles. In response to questioning, Mrs. Stiles stated that her husband had caused the *119 damage but that it was possible he had left the apartment. Simultaneously, she pointed upstairs.
The police officers proceeded upstairs and found defendant in a bedroom holding one of his fingers which was bleeding. One officer went to an adjacent room with Mrs. Stiles to obtain her version of what had happened. The other officer entered the bedroom to talk to defendant, to obtain identification, and to keep the parties separate. When defendant attempted to leave the bedroom, the officer blocked the doorway and motioned to defendant to go back and sit down. Defendant charged at the officer a second time and was repelled. When the officer again asked defendant to produce some identification, defendant pushed the officer away, causing the officer’s arm to go through a glass window. A scuffle ensued and defendant began choking the officer until he was pulled off by the other officer.
The proscription in
It is clear that the officer was legally performing his duty when he approached the apartment in response to the call that a family disturbance was occurring therein. It further appears that the officer was accomplishing a lawful and proper police *120 function of preserving law and order by attempting to ascertain whether defendant was still present in the apartment and by attempting to keep the parties separate. People v Morris, 41 Mich App 582; 200 NW2d 456 (1972). The officers believed that Mrs. Stiles had phoned in the complaint, the apartment was a shambles, Mrs. Stiles was crying and shaking, she permitted the officers to enter the apartment, and she told the officers that her husband had caused the damage. Although she told the officers that her husband had possibly left, she silently pointed upstairs. In light of Mrs. Stiles’ condition and that of the apartment, the officers reasonably interpreted her pointing upstairs as permission to investigate the upstairs of the apartment. See People v Chism, 390 Mich 104, 128-139; 211 NW2d 193 (1973). This Court concludes that the trial court after reviewing the reasonableness of the circumstances did not commit clear error in finding that the officers lawfully proceeded upstairs. GCR 1963, 517.1; People v Long, 94 Mich App 338; 288 NW2d 629 (1979).
By analogy to Terry v Ohio, 392 US 1; 88 S Ct 1868; 20 L Ed 2d 889 (1968), which addressed the issue of the exclusion of evidence illegally seized rather than the present issue of obstructing lawful police activity, it further appears that the police officer’s limited detention of defendant in the bedroom was lawful. In Terry, the United States Supreme Court held that the reasonableness of a restraint on a person’s freedom is not measured by the probable cause standard when the restraint is of limited scope. Reasonableness must be established by specific and articulable facts and rational inferences therefrom. See also Delaware v Prouse, 440 US 648; 99 S Ct 1391; 59 L Ed 2d 660 (1979), People v Grimmett, 97 Mich App 212; 293 NW2d 768 *121 (1980), and People v Dixon, 85 Mich App 271; 271 NW2d 196 (1978).
Specific facts adduced at trial clearly indicate that the detention of defendant was reasonable at its inception. Mrs. Stiles was shaken up, and she told the officers that defendant had caused the damage to the apartment. The police thus acted reasonably in attempting to keep the parties separate from each other. By standing in the doorway and blocking defendant’s path, the officer limited the scope of the detention in a manner clearly related to the officer’s reasonable belief that his safety or that of others was in danger. This Court finds no error in the trial court’s determination that defendant obstructed or assaulted the police officer in his lawful efforts to preserve and keep the peace.
Defendant also contends that his sentence of three years probation violated
Affirmed.