{"id":6427,"date":"2012-02-07T09:08:52","date_gmt":"2011-12-18T00:13:12","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-12-17T12:59:40","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=6427","title":{"rendered":"DC: When defendant assaults officer during illegal patdown, acquittal not the remedy for a Fourth Amendment violation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Defendant was stopped without legal justification, and one thing led to another and he assaulted the officer. Acquittal was not an appropriate remedy for what was a separate crime despite the Fourth Amendment violation. Crossland v. United States<\/a>, 32 A.3d 1005 (D.C. 2011):<\/p>\n

In his post-trial Motion for Judgment of Acquittal, appellant argued that \u201cbecause Officer Baldwin\u2019s behavior violated his [Fourth Amendment] rights,\u201d the trial court \u201cshould consider sanctioning the Government\u201d by entering a judgment of acquittal. Relying on Mapp v. Ohio, appellant argues that the trial court erred in denying his motion, contending that \u201cthe only way to deter the MPD police policy of \u2018aggressive high visibility patrol,\u2019 … is to remove the incentive\u201d for police officers to disregard constitutional rights. We discern no reason to doubt (and the government does not dispute) that Officer Baldwin\u2019s conduct \u2014 forcibly searching appellant when, as the officer acknowledged, appellant was doing nothing unlawful \u2014 violated appellant\u2019s Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. However, application of the sanction established by Mapp (the so-called \u201cexclusionary rule\u201d) has \u201cbeen limited to cases in which the prosecution seeks to use the fruits of an illegal search or seizure against the victim of police misconduct.\u201d Artis v. United States<\/a>, 802 A.2d 959, 967 (D.C. 2002) (quoting United States v. Leon<\/a>, 468 U.S. 897, 910, 104 S. Ct. 3405, 82 L. Ed. 2d 677 (1984)). This case did not involve the seizure of evidence, and the authority that appellant cited did not require or authorize the trial court to grant appellant\u2019s request for a judgment of acquittal. Moreover, as the trial court recognized, the APO statute \u201cprohibits forceful resistance even if the officer\u2019s conduct is unlawful.\u201d Dolson v. United States<\/a>, 948 A.2d 1193, 1202 (D.C. 2008) (explaining that the rationale for this rule is to \u201cdeescalate the potential for violence which exists whenever a police officer encounters an individual in the line of duty\u201d) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). The trial court did not err in denying appellant\u2019s motion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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