Court Opinion

ID: 9624772
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:17:14.674338+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:08:22.825053
License: Public Domain

APODACA, Judge, specially concurring. I concur in the result for reasons different than those contained in the majority opinion. In reading defendant’s brief in chief, I have formed the distinct impression that he has thrown us a “red herring” by claiming that the injury threatened was not unlawful. In so contending, defendant strongly focuses the main thrust of his argument on appeal specifically on the express language of NMSA 1978, Section 30-16-9(A) (Repl.Pamp.1984), which specifies a “threat to do an unlawful injury.” To do so is to view this language in isolation instead of considering it together with some rather significant and equally important language found in the first paragraph of the statute, namely, that the threat must be accompanied with the “intent * * * to wrongfully obtain anything of value.” Defendant’s bait has led the majority on what I consider to be an unnecessary journey through a discussion of breach of contract for the purpose of addressing defendant’s misfocused argument and to determine if the injury threatened here was “unlawful.” In my judgment, the emphasis should be on the wrongful intent, in this particular case, defendant’s demand for payment of $3,500 from the victim. To me, that is the gist of the legislative proscription defining the elements of the crime of extortion. Under my interpretation, the legislature could have very well left out the word “unlawful” in subsection A and the language would continue to have the same meaning; I cannot see an injury to a person or property being anything but unlawful, at least, in context of the statutory language at issue here. My conclusion that a wrongful demand is at the heart of the crime is reinforced by my belief that wrongfully threatening to do a lawful act clearly falls within the statutory definition of extortion. A prime example of this is a situation in which there is a threat to report a crime to the police unless the perpetrator “pays up.” Reporting a crime (truthfully) is a lawful act, and is in fact encouraged by law enforcement agencies and crime prevention groups. But threatening to do so in order to wrongfully obtain money would, I believe, constitute extortion under the statute and would specifically fall under Section 39-16-9(B), just as would a threat to falsely accuse one of a crime. The point is that it is the wrongful demand that should determine the criminal nature of an action under the statute, not the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the act threatened. See People v. Dioguardi, 8 N.Y.2d 260, 203 N.Y.S.2d 870, 168 N.E.2d 683 (1960) (defendant’s threat to picket victim’s place of business unless victim paid him constituted extortion even though picketing a legal act, when coupled with defendant’s bad motive, turned into an unlawful act). I interpret the subsections in Section 30-16-9 as merely examples of threats and not as exclusively defining the specific threats that may give rise to the crime of extortion. To me, it is irrelevant whether the harm threatened is unlawful, if the threat is made for an unlawful purpose, that is, wrongfully intending to obtain something of value from the victim. I conclude that defendant’s conviction must be affirmed, but that an analysis of the unlawfulness of the act threatened is unnecessary.