State v. Crawley

State v. Crawley

Opinion

 [**925]  [*443]   Justice ALBIN delivered the opinion of the Court.

In this case, two police officers on patrol received a dispatch from headquarters that a person was armed with a gun outside a bar. Minutes later, near the bar, the officers sighted a man matching the description given in the dispatch and ordered him to stop for questioning. Instead, the man, later identified as defendant Saleem T. Crawley, ran. After an intense pursuit, the officers arrested defendant. Defendant was convicted of the disorderly persons offense of obstructing "a public servant from lawfully performing an official function by means of flight." N.J.S.A. 2C:29-1(a). Defendant claims in this appeal that because the officers engaged in an unconstitutional investigatory stop, the officers were not "lawfully performing [**926]  an official function," and therefore he should have been found not guilty.

In upholding defendant's conviction, the Appellate [***9]  Division determined that the investigatory stop was constitutional, finding that the officers acted based on "a reasonable articulable suspicion of criminal activity." We affirm, but for different reasons. We conclude that in relying on the dispatch from headquarters the officers were "lawfully performing an official function" when they commanded defendant to stop. Defendant's obligation to comply with that command did not depend on how a court at some later time [*444]  might decide the overall constitutionality of the street encounter. Because the officers acted in good faith and under color of their authority, defendant violated the obstructing statute when he took flight, thus endangering himself, the police, and the public.

At defendant's trial in Newark Municipal Court, the State presented its case through the testimony of Newark police officers Paul Williams and Matthew Milton. Shortly after midnight on March 15, 2002, while on patrol in a marked police car, Officers Williams and Milton received a radio dispatch reporting that there was a man armed with a gun at the Oasis Bar located on South Orange Avenue in Newark. ¹ The dispatcher described the suspect as a young black male,  [***10]  5'5" to 5'7" tall, weighing about 150 pounds, and wearing a green jacket, red shirt, blue jeans, and black boots. Less than two minutes later, while traveling westbound on South Orange Avenue toward the bar, the two uniformed officers observed defendant walking eastbound "at a semi-brisk pace" with his hands in his jacket pockets. Defendant matched exactly the dispatcher's description of the suspect. Officer Williams referred to that part of South Orange Avenue as "[a] very high narcotics area," and to the Oasis as a "notorious bar" known for "[a] lot of weapons offenses."

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