Defendant appeals a judgment of conviction for disorderly conduct in the second degree. ORS 166.025. He assigns error to the trial court’s denial of his motion for a judgment of acquittal, arguing that the evidence was insufficient to prove that he “engage[d] in fighting or in violent, tumultuous or threatening behavior” within the meaning of the offense statute. We affirm.
The relevant facts are undisputed. One afternoon, at about 4:00 p.m., defendant was walking down the sidewalk in front of a gas and auto service station. On the sidewalk in front of thе station was a three-foot-tall, metal, sandwich-board-style “Help Wanted” sign. As he walked by, defendant kicked the sign off the sidewalk intо the middle of a busy four-lane road. The station owner followed defendant to ask him to stop kicking the sign. Once the station ownеr got defendant’s attention, however, defendant turned around but did not speak. Instead, defendant pulled a glove from his poсket, put the glove on one hand and made a fist, and repeatedly punched his fist into his other hand. Feeling threatened, the station owner backed away and called the police.
On the basis of those events, defendant was charged with two counts of second-degree disorderly conduct — one for kicking the sign and the other for his threatening gestures toward the station ownеr. For both counts, the state alleged that defendant “did unlawfully and recklessly create a risk of public inconvenience, аnnoyance and alarm, by engaging in fighting or in violent, tumultuous or threatening behavior.” At trial, after the state’s case-in-chief, defendаnt moved for a judgment of acquittal on both counts. The trial court granted defendant’s motion with respect to the charge bаsed on the threatening gestures, but denied the motion with respect to the charge based on kicking the sign. The jury convicted defеndant on the remaining charge.
Defendant appeals, contending that the trial court erred in denying his motion for a judgment of acquittal because the evidence is undisputed that he did not use physical force against another person. When reviеwing the denial of such a motion, we examine the record and all reasonable
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inferences that may be drawn from it in the light mоst favorable to the state to determine whether a rational factfinder could have found all the elements of the offense beyond a reasonable doubt.
State v. Cunningham,
The statute under which defendant was charged provides, in part:
“(1) A person commits thе crime of disorderly conduct in the second degree if, with intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance оr alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof, the person:
“(a) Engages in fighting or in violent, tumultuous or threatening behaviorf]”
ORS 166.025. We construed the terms “fighting” and “violent, tumultuous or threatening behavior” in
State v. Cantwell,
Thus, a person violates ORS 166.025(l)(a) if he or she, with the requisite mental state, either (1) uses physical force or (2) engages in physical conduct that is immediately likеly to produce the use of physical force.
See State v. Atwood,
*318 In this case, defendant insists that kicking the sign did not violate ORS 166.025(l)(a). Regarding the first prong of the Atwood analysis, defendant does not dispute that kicking the sign was an “actual use of strength or power.” Instead, defendant asserts that, because he “did not use physical force against anyone,” his conduct was not a “physical aсt[ ] of aggression” that is proscribed by the statute. According to defendant, kicking the sign “was simply an act of frustration because thе sign was impeding [his] path.” He analogizes that act to the incidental physical conduct in Krieger that we determined did not constitute “physical force” for the purposes of ORS 166.025(l)(a).
We disagree. Defendant’s act of kicking the sign constituted the use of physical force; he kicked it hard enough that it landed in the middle of the road, demonstrating an “actual use of strength or power.” It was not, as defendant asserts, merely incidental physical conduct. He did not kick the sign as “a common method of gaining someonе’s attention”; instead, he kicked the sign because he was frustrated that it was blocking the sidewalk. Furthermore, we reject defendant’s contention that the physical force must be directed at a person. Neither the words of the statute nor our cases construing it limit the proscribed conduct in the way that defendant suggests.
Alternatively, defendant argues that there was no evidence that his conduct was immediately likely to produce the use of physical force.
Atwood,
Given that defendant used physical force when he kicked a sign into a busy four-lane roаd, a rational factfinder could have concluded that, in doing so, defendant recklessly created a risk of public incоnvenience, annoyance, or alarm. *319 Thus, the trial court correctly denied defendant’s motion for a judgment of acquittal.
Affirmed.
