Court Opinion

ID: 9774433
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 18:20:23.613656+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:08.439507
License: Public Domain

DISSENTING OPINION ON STATE’S MOTION FOR LEAVE TO FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING
DOUGLAS, Judge.
The majority overrules the State’s motion for leave to file motion for rehearing without written opinion. On original submission a panel of this Court held that in order to secure a conviction for making a false report to a police officer the State must prove that the defendant acted in “bad faith.” The panel further held that the *481State’s proof of “bad faith” was circumstantial, that the proof did not negate every reasonable hypothesis except guilt and, therefore, the evidence was insufficient and a judgment of acquittal was necessary. The panel was incorrect in adding an additional element to the statute. It substituted an old Court of Civil Appeals opinion in a libel case based on common law as a constitutional provision. The Legislature is not bound to follow the decision based on common law of a libel case in enacting a statute making it an offense to make a false report to an officer knowing that the offense or event did not occur.
The panel ignored a long line of cases when it reviewed the evidence of “bad faith” under our rules governing circumstantial evidence and the panel ignored facts in concluding the evidence was insufficient even under the improper standard it applied.
Section 37.08 of the Penal Code defines the offense of False Report to Peace Officer. The statutory elements of the offense are:
1. A person;
2. Makes a report;
3. To a peace officer;
4. Of or relating to an offense or incident within the officer’s concern;
5. Knowing the offense or incident did not occur.
The panel, in a case where the subject of the false report is a police officer, adds the additional element of:
6. In bad faith.
It is the function of the Legislature to pass laws; it is the judiciary’s function to interpret them. This Court should not seek to usurp the powers of the Legislature. Given the separation of our government into three branches, the need for an explanation is necessary when the judiciary modifies a legislative act. The panel opinion in the instant case fails to present a proper explanation.
The panel opinion quotes from our Constitution that citizens shall have the right to apply to those invested with powers of government for redress of grievances or other purposes. It substitutes a citation to Connellee v. Blanton, 163 S.W. 404 (Tex.Civ. App., Ft. Worth, 1913, no writ), for any meaningful analysis.
C. U. Connellee appealed from a judgment in a libel suit. He prepared an application to Governor O. B. Colquitt requesting a pardon for George Parvin who had been convicted of aggravated assault. In the application, Connellee charged that Judge Thomas Blanton, who presided at Parvin’s trial, had “changed the venue of the case for the purpose of making cost excessive.” Blanton’s suit charged this statement was libelous and obtained a judgment of $3,000. The trial judge also concluded Connellee wrote the statement “with actual malice.” The Connellee opinion begins with a recitation of the facts. It then disposes of an unrelated contention. Finally, it deals with Connellee’s argument that his general demurrer was improperly overruled because statements in an application for a pardon are subject to an absolute privilege. While discussing the difference between an absolute and qualified privilege, the court quotes from Defamation, Slander and Libel, a book by “Mr. Newell.” The quotation includes the following:
“Every communication is privileged which is made in good faith with a view to obtain redress for some injury received or to prevent or punish some abuse.”
The Connellee court then discussed Texas precedent and the relevant constitutional provisions and rejected “Mr. Newell’s” concept of a qualified privilege. The Connellee court held: u[T]he application made by appellant to the Governor, who was, by the Constitution, vested with authority to grant a pardon to George Parvin, was absolutely privileged.” This holding of absolute privilege was essential to the case because if the privilege was only qualified, the trial court’s finding of “actual malice" would have defeated Connellee’s contention.
Thus, the panel judicially amended a statute without explaining its rationale. In the place of a thorough explanation and analysis, they substituted conclusory statements *482and citation to a 65-year-old, intermediate appellate court decision. The panel misconstrued the opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals.
The writer is of the opinion that the evidence is sufficient to support the conviction even with the element of the offense added by the panel. Normally, when we review the sufficiency of the evidence, we look at that evidence in the light most favorable to the verdict and determine if an appellant was guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. In a circumstantial case we review the evidence, again in the light most favorable to the verdict, and determine if that evidence, in addition to proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, negates every reasonable hypothesis except guilt. This second standard is considered more exacting.
The panel opinion reviewed the evidence of “bad faith” under this more exacting circumstantial evidence standard. This is contrary to established precedent. In Williams v. State, 567 S.W.2d 507 (Tex.Cr.App. 1978), we stated the applicable rule:
“It is well established that an instruction as to circumstantial evidence is not required where the main fact is proved by direct testimony and only the question of the defendant’s intent is to be inferred from the circumstances. Littleton v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 419 S.W.2d 355; Helms v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 493 S.W.2d 227; Chappell v. State, Tex.Cr.App. 519 S.W.2d 453; Ross v. State, Tex.Cr.App., 504 S.W.2d 862.”
In the instant case, the statutory or the first four elements of the offense were established by appellant’s written complaint and the testimony of officers who had personal knowledge of either appellant’s complaint or Officer Wolf’s lack of intoxication. These were facts proved by direct evidence. Appellant’s state of mind with respect to the culpable mental state of intentionally and knowingly as alleged in the indictment was proved and the element of “bad faith” was proved by inferences which could be drawn from these objective facts. In nearly every case, state of mind is proved by such inferences. Yet, this Court has never applied the law of circumstantial evidence to such a case. Where intent is the only thing that is not proved by direct evidence, the case is not a circumstantial evidence case and no such charge is required. Smith v. State, 470 S.W.2d 696 (Tex.Cr.App.1971); Barber v. State, 462 S.W.2d 33 (Tex.Cr.App. 1971).
Finally, this writer disagrees with the panel’s conclusion that the evidence to prove their judicially enacted “bad faith” element does not exclude every reasonable hypothesis except guilt. The panel decision acknowledges that the evidence “shows that Wolf was not intoxicated and that appellant had ample opportunity to perceive this.” The panel apparently would require direct evidence of malicious motive. Her false report and her brothers’ involvement with the Irving police do not satisfy the panel nor does the fact that she was issued a traffic ticket, to which the panel contends her reaction was “equivocal,” prove sufficient proof of motive.
The record indicates the profane response of appellant when she was issued the parking ticket. Officer Wolf described the incident as follows:
“A. After I had asked her for her name, address, telephone number and date of birth, I gave her the pink copy of the citation. She walked to her car, and as she sat down in her car she called me a bastard.
“Q. Okay, what happened then?
“A. I walked over to her car and I said, Ma’am, I said, I’m not a bastard.
“Q. And then what happened?
“A. She stepped on the gas, her car lurched forward and the right front wheel went up over the curb.
“Q. Then what happened?
“A. She said something and I said, Ma’am. She backed up and said something else and I said, Ma’am. I don’t know what she said, I couldn’t hear her. And then she drove off.”
Reacting to a ticket by calling an officer a bastard and her conduct at the time is some evidence of motive.
*483Appellant’s brothers had been involved with the Irving police. Appellant overreacted to the issuance of a parking ticket and she intentionally and knowingly made a patently false report of intoxication to Wolf’s supervisors. Even under the panel’s erroneous legal analysis, this writer can perceive of no reasonable probability to explain the making of the false report other than that of the appellant’s actual malice or “bad faith” toward Wolf. The evidence was sufficient.
The motion for rehearing should be granted and the judgment should be affirmed.
W. C. DAVIS, J., joins in this dissent.