Court Opinion

ID: 9733704
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 17:14:48.083188+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:27:35.651187
License: Public Domain

LEVINE, Justice,
concurring specially.
I agree that the order of dismissal is appealable and that Ritter was unlawfully detained. I, therefore, concur in Parts I and II of the majority opinion. I also agree with that portion of Part III which reverses the order of dismissal. I write specially, however, to emphasize that only questions of fact are to be submitted to the jury, not questions of law.
Whether there was unconstitutional and thus unlawful police conduct is a question of law to be deduced by the trial court after it resolves any disputed facts. See e.g. United States v. Carrillo, 902 F.2d 1405, 1411 (9th Cir.1990); United States v. Maragh, 894 F.2d 415, 417-18 (D.C.Cir.1990); United States v. McKinnell, 888 F.2d 669, 672 (10th Cir.1989). The jury does not resolve questions of law and, therefore, whether the officers were acting lawfully is not a jury question. See Id.; Cfi City of Langdon v. Delvo, 390 N.W.2d 51, 53 (N.D.1986) [probable cause is legal question to be determined by court]. We have already affirmed the trial court’s conclusion of illegal detention and so the jury should be instructed that the police were acting unlawfully.
The trial court dismissed the preventing arrest charge as a sanction for police misconduct. I agree that that was improper because the trial judge misinterpreted the nature of the defense available to the charge. Ritter was charged with preventing arrest under Section 12.1-08-02, N.D.C.C. It is a defense to the crime of preventing arrest that the police officer was not acting lawfully. Section 12.1-08-02(2), N.D.C.C. Here, the police were not acting lawfully so Ritter was entitled to defend on that ground.1
However, the defense of unlawful police conduct, to a charge of preventing arrest, is not absolute. The comments to the proposed federal code suggest that the standards for judging the use of force in resist*454ing an unlawful arrest are those that govern the justifiable use of force in self-defense. I Working Papers of the Nat’l Comm’n on Reform of Fed.Crim.Laws at 522 (Study Draft 1970). On remand, the jury is to resolve fact questions relating to the reasonableness of Ritter’s conduct under the circumstances of this case. It is up to the jury to decide whether Ritter’s conduct was justifiable in light of the conduct of the police or whether it exceeded the boundaries of the statutory defense based upon the law of justification and self-defense.

. The statutory defense distinguishes this case from State v. Indvik, 382 N.W.2d 623 (N.D.1986) [defendant charged with reckless endangerment and terrorizing]; State v. Saavedra, 396 N.W.2d 304 (N.D.1986) [defendant charged with disorderly conduct] and State v. Kunkel, 406 N.W.2d 681 (N.D.1987) [defendant charged with assault]. The defense of unlawful police conduct is not available to the crime of reckless endangerment or terrorizing or disorderly conduct or assault. See, N.D.C.C. Sections 12.1-17-03, 12.1-17-04, 12.1-31-01 and 12.1-17-08.