Opinion ID: 2363210
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: During the evening of April 19, 2004, between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m., the Federalsburg [2] Police Department intervened in several disputes in progress, all resulting from an argument between Alexander Wilcox and Derrick Wilcox. [3] Officer Pennell Jester observed the two squabbling near Academy Avenue in Federalsburg, and requested backup. When Officer Brian McNeill responded, both officers approached, and the Wilcoxes left the area. The quarrel migrated to a nearby street corner where a large crowd began to gather. According to Officer Jester, there was a lot of heated activity at the corner, which appeared to be we're gonna get somebody or something was going to be happening. Both police officers interceded and ordered the crowd to disperse. Over the next ten minutes, the group gradually scattered, and the officers followed both Wilcoxes to the Lucky Corner Store. After leaving the store, another confrontation began among the Wilcoxes and two other individuals. Officer Jester testified that it looked like there was gonna be a fight again, and both officers separated the four men. By that time, a larger crowd of eight to ten people had gathered. The officers again ordered the gathering to disperse. A larger throng, between twenty and thirty people, began to gather at a nearby street corner. The participants shouted and were loud as they walked throughout traffic. Officers Jester and McNeill again approached and moved the participants out of traffic and away from the street corner. The conflagration continued to migrate to a nearby parking lot. Officer Jester testified that it appeared that there was going to be an immediate altercation [with] . . . a whole bunch of people just acting completely out of control, and that he thought a riot was ensuing because there was enough people there and it was getting way out of control, way too fast. Officers Jester and McNeill intervened, interposed themselves within the crowd, and, to no avail, ordered the participants to disperse. Over time, eventually the maelstrom died down, and the crowd dissipated. Around 7:20 p.m., the next altercation occurred, this time at the Garden Court Apartments. Officers Jester and McNeill were dispatched to the scene after the Caroline County Sheriff's Department received a 911 call regarding a fight between forty and sixty people. When they arrived, Officer Jester determined that the argument was over, but that numerous people, including Spry, were loitering at the location. The situation was very heated, and along with Officers McNeill, Wielgosz, and Adams, and Deputy Sheriff Gestole, Officer Jester ordered those present to immediately leave the location if they did not live in the Garden Court Apartments. Officer Jester testified that he ordered the crowd to depart the area because there were forty to fifty people standing in the middle of the roadway and the parking lot, screaming, yelling loud, [and] carrying on. . . . Spry, who was not a resident of the Garden Court Apartments, [4] refused to leave. What happened next was the subject of the following testimony of Officer Jester: [T]hat's where Mr. Spry became involved in the incident. He was in the apartments there, he's not a resident of those apartments. He was advised by myself to move along, and Mr. Spry right in my face, looked at me and said, Fuck you bitch. He continued to stand in front of me defiantly refusing to move and to leave the area.    He stood his ground firmly, like he's not going anywhere. . . .    Mr. Spry refused to move. Again I advised Mr. Spry it was time to move along which he responded with to me, with more profanity. Mr. Spry continued to, what we called eyeball, just glare at me, like he was looking through me. Officer Jester then ordered Spry to move along at least four or five times within the space of five to ten minutes. Officer McNeill testified similarly about the interaction at the Garden Courts Apartment complex, noting that there were many individuals, including Spry, who were menacing, shouting obscenities at the officers, and creating a disturbance: Mr. George Spry was yelling numerous profanities at officers, and as Officer Jester walked to Mr. Spry's location they were like in a Mexican stand off. Mr. Spry was standing in, it appeared a defiant stance to Officer Jester. . . .    His jaw was clenched, he was standing with his arms down by his side, his left fist appeared to be balled; it was completely balled, it was just curled up forming more of a balled fist looking, as opposed to an open relaxed hand. And as Officer Jester continued to approach him, Mr. Spry stood still, stood at the same position where he was at. I then began to walk towards Officer Jester and Mr. Spry's location, at that point and time some associates of Mr. Spry began tugging at him, saying, come on George, let's go. And Mr. Spry then walked away, along with his associates continuing to yell profanities back at the police.    I heard Officer Jester direct Mr. Spry to leave the area, as he was telling other individuals. . . . After each directive from Officer Jester, Mr. Spry made a comment like, fuck the police, nobody's scared of you fucking cops, or something like fuck you all. I just kept hearing the word fuck come out of his mouth. In response to a question about the volume of Spry's invocations, Officer McNeill replied that the volume of his voice was elevated, he projected throughout the . . . immediate area where we responded to. Officer Jester filed a statement of charges during the afternoon of the following day, formally charging Spry with one count of riot, one count of obstructing and hindering a police officer, one count of failing to obey a lawful order that a law enforcement officer makes to prevent a disturbance to the public peace in violation of Section 10-201(c)(3) of the Criminal Law Article; one count of disturbing the peace in violation of Section 10-201(c)(4) of the Criminal Law Article; [5] one count of disturbing the peace by making an unreasonably loud noise in violation of Section 10-201(c)(5) of the Criminal Law Article; [6] one count of disturbing the peace by hindering the free passage of another in violation of Section 10-201(c)(1) of the Criminal Law Article; [7] and one count of disorderly conduct in violation of Section 10-201(c)(2) of the Criminal Law Article. [8] Spry was arrested pursuant to a warrant on April 21, 2004. [9] Spry requested a jury trial on June 28, 2004, and the case was removed to the Circuit Court for Caroline County. On September 24, 2004, the first day of trial, the State nolle prossed the charges for riot, disturbing the peace, and disturbing the peace by making an unreasonably loud noise. After the State rested, Spry's counsel moved for judgment of acquittal on the four remaining charges, which was granted as to the charges for disturbing the peace by hindering the free passage of another and obstructing and hindering a police officer, as well as for the disorderly conduct charge. Spry was convicted by a jury on the only remaining count, failing to obey a lawful order that a law enforcement officer makes to prevent a disturbance to the public peace in violation of Section 10-201(c)(3). Spry was sentenced to sixty days imprisonment with all but two consecutive weekends suspended, as well as one year of unsupervised probation. [10] Spry noted an appeal to the Court of Special Appeals, contending that the evidence was not legally sufficient to support his conviction, and posing one question of whether tardy compliance is violation of the statute. [11] In an unreported opinion, the intermediate appellate court characterized the incidents in Federalsburg on the evening of April 19th, 2004, as a three-round scuffle, riotous, and almost reducing the peace and tranquility . . . to a civil war battlefield, and described Spry as a leading voice of defiance, and truculent. In affirming his conviction and finding that the evidence was sufficient to convict, the appellate court determined that the question is where on the intervening continuum to place the critical point where Section 10-201(c)(3) is violated, a question entrusted to the collective wisdom of our judicial fact finders. The court also stated that a snarling compliance twenty minutes after an order is given does not negate nineteen antecedent minutes of non-compliance. We granted Spry's petition for writ of certiorari, which presented the following question for our review: Was Petitioner improperly convicted of failing to obey a police order to leave the scene when he did leave and there was no attempt to arrest him when the order was given? Spry v. State, 393 Md. 477, 903 A.2d 416 (2006). We hold that a police officer does not have to arrest an individual immediately after the first disobedience of a lawful order made to prevent a disturbance to the peace, nor does a police officer have to arrest the individual at the scene.