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People v. Martinez9/7/1999
ppose is some suggestion that he physically stood between the officer and the person that the officer was attempting to speak with. I tend to agree that the verbal statements of the defendant are protected and would not constitute the verbal disturbance that is alleged in Count II. I think that there are certain circumstances in which verbal statements could be sufficient. I just don't find as a matter of law that what we have here arises to that.
I think that the closer call really is the issue of whether or not the defendant physically got himself between the officer and the person that the officer was attempting to speak with. It's interesting here that apparently up to the time that Mr. Martinez left the scene he was not under arrest[,] and it was when he came back that he was placed under arrest.
Taking into account the totality of the circumstances, and I think that that's really what these cases are saying, that you really need to look at the circumstances as they existed at the scene in order to put what the supposed acts by the defendant and[--] you have to put them in some type of context, and I think some of these cases like the one where the State cites are cases in which you almost have a tendency to fear a riot and then someone coming on to the scene and doting the crowd on to obstruct the police investigation.
That simply is not the situation that we have here. Taking into account the totality of the circumstances, I tend to agree with the defendant that as a matter of law there was not obstructing a peace officer. So I am going to grant the motion to suppress."
Section 31-1(a) of the Criminal Code of 1961 (720 ILCS 5/31-1 (West 1996)) states as follows:
"(a) A person who knowingly resists or obstructs the performance by one known to the person to be a peace officer * of any authorized act within his official capacity commits a Class A misdemeanor."
Although none of the cases regarding obstruction of a peace officer are based on exactly the same set of facts that we have in this case, we nevertheless find them to be instructive. In People v. Weathington, 82 Ill.2d 183, 187, 411 N.E.2d 862, 864 (1980), the Illinois Supreme Court stated that mere argument is not enough to constitute obstructing a police officer. In People v. Raby, 40 Ill. 2d 392, 399, 240 N.E.2d 595, 599 (1968), the Illinois Supreme Court stated that to "obstruct" means "to be or come in the way of." The court stated that " iven a reasonable and natural construction, these terms do not proscribe mere argument with a policeman about the validity of an arrest or other police action but proscribe only some physical act which imposes an obstacle which may impede, hinder, interrupt, prevent[,] or delay the performance of the officer's duties, such as going limp, forcefully resisting arrest[,] or physically aiding a third party to avoid arrest." (Emphasis added). Raby, 40 Ill. 2d 392, 240 N.E.2d at 599.
In the instant case, the police officers' testimony that defendant stepped between Wolff and the men that he was attempting to question was uncontradicted. The comments by the trial Judge show that the court was not trying to determine whether defendant actually stood between Wolff and the others but whether defendant's standing in between the officers and the people that they were trying to question, in conjunction with "mouthing" to the deputy, constituted obstructing a peace officer. This is precisely the issue that we have before us at this time. It is clear from a review of the record that defendant's actions of stepping in between Wolff and the people that he was attempting to question actually impeded, hindered, interrupted, and delayed the p
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