Court Opinion

ID: 9654173
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:08:21.094197+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:06.459258
License: Public Domain

CLEMENS, Special Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent, because of that part of the opinion which holds that the *516peace disturbance and the assault here involved were separate and distinct offenses and that therefore double jeopardy did not arise. My reason:
In the Magistrate Court the defendant was charged with and acquitted of creating a disturbance by making loud and unusual noises, etc., “and by fighting.” That meant fighting with Officer Bray. Fighting implies an assault. So considered, the initial charge was one of assaulting Officer Bray and thereby disturbing the peace. Therefore, I believe that the assault and the resultant peace disturbance merged, and were not separate and distinct offenses, and that it constituted double jeopardy thereafter to charge defendant with the assault upon Officer Bray.
I believe that State v. Chernick, supra, is distinguishable. There, during the course of a bank robbery, the robber was surprised by the entrance of a policeman, whom he then shot and wounded. The Supreme Court ruled that the robbery and the assault, were separate and distinct offenses, even though they arose out of the same transaction. There, the assault upon the policeman was not an integral part of the robbery, but merely an incident thereof. Here, it was the fighting with and assault upon Officer Bray that produced the peace disturbance. The offense of breach of the peace is, of course, not composed alone of the element of disturbance, but arises from the commission of an act which produces that result. City of St. Louis v. Slupsky, 254 Mo. 309, 162 S.W. 155, 49 L.R.A.,N.S., 919. I therefore believe that the assault upon Officer Bray was an integral part of the peace disturbance charged, and hence not a separate and distinct offense.
Rehearing denied.
ANDERSON and MATTHES, JJ., concur.
CLEMENS, Special Judge, not voting.