1 Conn. Cir. Ct. 574 | Conn. App. Ct. | 1962
The four defendants were tried together in a trial to the court, and each was found guilty on a charge of disorderly conduct in violation of § 53-175 of the General Statutes, which provides: “Any person who, by offensive or disorderly conduct, annoys or interferes with any person in any place . . . , although such conduct may not amount to an assault and battery, shall be . . . [punished].” Two claims of error are pursued in this appeal: (1) that the facts as found do not as a matter of law constitute disorderly conduct; and (2) that the court erred “in concluding upon all the evidence that the . . . [defendants were] guilty of the crime charged beyond a reasonable doubt.”
The facts as shown by the record are short and simple. On February 8, 1962, the defendants Petty, Jackson and Ackerman, together with three unidentified persons, entered the common waiting room of the downtown office of Arthur T. Barbieri, Inc., a real estate firm, which shared office space with two lawyers and was located at 109 Church Street, in New Haven. Arthur T. Barbieri is the chairman of the Democratic town committee. Of the six persons who entered the waiting room, some sat on chairs, others on the floor. None of the six had any business or professional engagements with any of the occupants of the office suite. A business patron of Barbieri, upon leaving his private office, was obliged to climb over one or more of the “sit-ins” in order to get to the outside door. Upon instructions from Barbieri, his secretary summoned the police. William Doerrer, a detective of the New
In none of the cases did the defendants themselves testify or introduce any evidence in their defense.
Upon these facts, which were undisputed, the court concluded that the defendants entered the business premises without any semblance of right
We are aware that the term “disorderly conduct” is not one of precise meaning. It has been variously defined in different jurisdictions and no definition is generally accepted which is of such precision that it may readily be determined whether particular conduct is or is not disorderly. See Hughes v. Georgia Power Co., 65 Ga. App. 163, 166. The most comprehensive definition of the offense appears in Model Penal Code §250.2 (1962) as follows: “(1) Offense Defined. A person is guilty of disorderly conduct if, with purpose to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or resklessly creating a risk thereof, he (a) engages in fighting or threatening, or in a violent and tumultuous behavior; or (b) makes unreasonable noise or offensively coarse utterance, gesture or display, or addresses abusive language to any person present; or (c) creates a hazardous or physically offensive condition by any' act which serves no legitimate purpose of the actor. ‘Public’ means affecting or likely to affect persons in a place to which the public or a substantial group has access; among the places included are highways, transport facilities, schools, prisons, apartment houses, places of business or amusement, or any neighborhood.” In People v. Harvey, 307 N.Y. 588, 591, the New York Court of Appeals, in construing § 720 of the New York Penal Law, which is practically identical with our § 53-175, said, quoting from People v. St. Clair, 90 App. Div. 239, 243: “ ‘Two things must occur to constitute the crime [of disorderly conduct]. One of these relates to the conduct of the accused, and the other to the effect of such conduct upon the complainant. There must be an annoyance to or interference with some
Twice in the last two years, the United States Supreme Court has reversed state criminal convictions on due process grounds where the convictions were totally devoid of evidentiary support. Thompson v. Louisville, 362 U.S. 199; Garner v. Louisiana, 368 U.S. 157. The first case involved an alleged violation of municipal and disorderly conduct ordinances. Thompson, a poor Negro, was arrested in a small cafe while waiting for a bus. He was charged with loitering there without the consent of the tavern proprietor and with failure to give a satisfactory account of himself to a police officer who found him doing a “shuffle dance” in rhythm with the music of a jukebox. This charge was so utterly devoid of evidentiary support that the Supreme Court set aside the conviction as a violation of due process. There was also a disorderly conduct charge, based on the arresting officer’s testimony that when Thompson was taken into custody he “was very argumentative — he argued with us back and forth and so then we placed a disorderly conduct charge on him.” Mr. Justice Black, speaking for the court, in setting aside the disorderly conduct conviction said (p. 205): “Petitioner’s conviction for disorderly conduct was under § 85-8 of the city ordinance which, without definition, provides that ‘[wjhoever shall be found guilty of disorderly conduct in the City of Louisville shall be fined . . .’ etc. The only evidence of ‘disorderly conduct’ was the single statement of the policeman that after petitioner was arrested and taken out of the cafe he was very argumentative. There is no testimony that petitioner raised his voice, used offensive language, resisted the officers or engaged
The second case, Garner v. Louisiana, supra, involved violations of a statute on disturbing the peace. The statute (La. Rev. Stat. § 14:103 [1950]) provided that “[disturbing the peace is the doing of any of the following in such a manner as would foreseeably disturb or alarm the public . . . [enumerating certain specific acts] or (7) [Commission of any other act in such a manner as to unreasonably disturb or alarm the public.” The facts were undisputed. The petitioners, who were Negroes, took seats at a segregated lunch bar in a privately owned department store. They were told they would be served if they moved. Upon their failure to move, the store manager summoned the police, who ordered the petitioners to leave the lunch counter and, when they refused, arrested them for disturbing the peace. The manager did not ask
Since the defendants in the present cases have been found guilty of “conduct allegedly having a particular effect on a particular occasion under particular circumstances, it becomes necessary to appraise that conduct and effect by the particularity of evidence adduced.” Frankfurter, J., concurring in the judgment in Garner, supra, 176. This is not the case of a proprietor who invites trade in some parts of his establishment and restricts it in another. Ibid. And unlike public restaurants, which have become a part of the public life of our communities, private business offices are not affected with a public interest. See Douglas, J., concurring in Garner, supra, 183. It may be that “[t]here is a
There is no error.