Opinion ID: 1651930
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: public duty.

Text: KRS 503.040, titled execution of public duty provides: (1) Unless inconsistent with the ensuing sections of this code defining justifiable use of physical force or with some other provisions of law, conduct which would otherwise constitute an offense is justifiable when it is required or authorized by a provision of law imposing a public duty or by a judicial decree. (2) The justification afforded by subsection (1) applies when: (a) The defendant believes his conduct to be required or authorized by the judgment or direction of a competent court or tribunal or in the lawful execution of legal process, notwithstanding lack of jurisdiction of the court or defect in the legal process; or .... (Emphasis added.) Appellant claims that his warrantless apprehension of Barkley was justified under KRS 503.040(1) by the orders of the Hamilton County Municipal Court. He is mistaken. As explained supra, that court did not order Appellant to apprehend Barkley. The capias was issued to the police chief of Cincinnati and even he was without authority to execute the capias outside the jurisdiction where it was issued. Street v. Cherba, 662 F.2d 1037, 1039 (4th Cir.1981) (citing Restatement (Second) of the Law of Torts § 129 (1965)); 5 Am.Jur.2d Arrest § 36. Cf. Bowlin v. Archer, 157 Ky. 540, 163 S.W. 477, 479 (1914) ([T]he officer of one sovereignty can exercise no authority whatever in the other.). The police chief could only have obtained Barkley's return to Ohio by resort to KRS 440.270(1), but apparently chose not to do so. Nor did the bond forfeiture order and notification authorize Appellant or his employer, Trimble, to violate KRS 440.270(2). It merely ordered Barkley's bond forfeited subject to reinstatement if he was subsequently produced in court. Thus, the orders of the Hamilton County Municipal Court provided no authority for Appellant's actions in Kentucky. Alternatively, Appellant asserts that he was entitled to a jury instruction on the justification afforded by KRS 503.040(2)(a) because he believed that the orders of the Ohio court authorized him to apprehend Barkley and return him to Ohio. Again, he is mistaken. KRS 503.040(2)(a) was adopted verbatim from section 3.03(3)(a) of the Model Penal Code. Comment 4 to that section of the Model Code clarifies that the defense applies only when the mistaken belief is the result of a lack of jurisdiction of the court or a defect in the legal process. Subsection (3) extends the justification of Subsection (1) to two situations in which a person is excused although mistaken about legal authorization. The first occurs when the actor believes his conduct to be required or authorized by a competent court or tribunal, or believes that he is executing lawful process, but the court lacks jurisdiction or there is some unknown defect in the legal process. The technicalities that control the question of jurisdiction and the legality of the process should not also control the defense of justification.... Model Penal Code § 3.03 cmt. 4 (1985) (emphasis added). Likewise, the 1974 Commentary to KRS 503.040 explains that the justification is available to a defendant who acts under a court order that is defective because of lack of jurisdiction but that is believed to authorize the action taken. (Emphasis added.) Thus, in Basham v. Commonwealth, Ky., 675 S.W.2d 376 (1984), wiretap evidence otherwise illegally obtained in violation of Kentucky's eavesdropping statute, KRS 526.020, was held admissible because the wiretap had been authorized by an order of a federal district court judge. Id. at 379. Here, the orders of the Ohio court were not invalid because of lack of jurisdiction or a defect in legal process. They simply did not purport to authorize the conduct for which Appellant was convicted.