Most people are aware it is unlawful to resist while the police are trying to make an arrest. However, it is critical to understand that California's definition of resisting arrest is broader than just refusing an arrest, and overzealous district attorneys are known to try people for refusing arrest in cases where it is inapplicable. If you are accused of refusing arrest, consulting an expert criminal defense counsel as quickly as possible is critical.
What Exactly Does Resisting Arrest Mean?
Resisting arrest is described as wilfully resisting, delaying, or obstructing a peace officer, public officer, or an emergency medical technician (EMT) in discharging or attempting to discharge any duty of their employment or office, and it is a crime under California PC Section 148a1. This section also applies to obstructing an officer from performing their duties, like taking a person into custody. It also applies to other kinds of interference with law enforcement officers. The crime is considered a misdemeanor.
Three elements make up the legal definition of resisting arrest, and the prosecutor must demonstrate these elements beyond a reasonable doubt before the jury for you to be considered to have committed a crime. These elements are as follows:
- You willfully resisted, obstructed, or delayed an EMT or law enforcement
- When they were involved in the doing of their official duties
- You knew or reasonably should have been aware that the EMT or officer was involved in the commission of their official duties.
The legal definition of resisting arrest necessitates a willful action that involves obstruction, delay, or resistance. This willful action must happen when the EMT or police officer is in the commission of their official duties.
Lastly, you must have known or should reasonably have been aware the EMT or police officer was working in an official capacity for you to have met the legal definition of resisting arrest. You do something willfully when you do it on purpose or willingly. Whether or not you had intended to gain an advantage, violate the law, or harm another party does not matter. Examples of incidents that can be considered resisting arrest include the following:
- Jeering at an EMT as they try to administer medical help
- Struggling with a law enforcement officer as they attempt to handcuff you or another arrestee
- Interfering with or delaying a law enforcement officer's travel to a crime or accident scene
- Giving the authorities an incorrect name during interrogation
- Obstructing a law enforcement officer in their duty of monitoring a suspect
- Interfering with a law enforcement officer while they are interviewing a witness
Considering the above examples, resisting arrest does not only involve someone attempting to prevent the police from legally taking them into custody, as most people think.
Note that college campus security officers are not considered police or public officers under PC 148(a)(1).
Not all resisting arrest cases are clear-cut. There is a history, particularly in California urban areas, of law enforcement officers using resisting arrest charges to justify or even conceal police misconduct, like racial profiling and excessive force. In this case, a skilled criminal lawyer may prove that the supposed incident occurred due to a false or unlawful arrest.
Often, resisting arrest charges arise when law enforcement decides to apply violent or excessive force against someone and justify their behavior; they allege that the individual they roughed up was resisting legal arrest. Provided law enforcement officers can prove they were doing their legal duties as law enforcement officers and applying force was reasonable given the circumstances, they can often justify resisting arrest accusations. However, if there is eyewitness or video evidence that the police misbehaved, the judge may dismiss the charges.
Nowadays, the defense team is highly likely to persuade the jury that law enforcement acted inappropriately compared to doing so in the past. The public is highly likely to be convinced that law enforcement acted inappropriately compared to before.
Should the police officer decide they are legally justified in placing you under arrest, you want to cooperate with them fully or risk being accused of resisting arrest. Generally, resisting arrest cases are more challenging to defend as the prosecution will often side with the police officer and not consider the defense team's excuses. It will be harder for the prosecutors or judge to drop this charge unless you and your lawyer can devise a valid reason.
The next problem in PC 148a1 violation cases revolves around whether you will be subject to any time in jail. Often, prosecuting attorneys pursue some custody time to make the involved person cooperate with law enforcement whenever they are told to do certain things.
This is because of the argument regarding respecting the rule of law and not existing in a chaotic world where nobody listens to the authorities and does what they please. This assertion goes against the defense that either:
- State law enforcement did not have the right to place the person under arrest or
- The person was obstructing arrest, law enforcement overreacted and was so aggressive with the involved individual, and then, to warrant their actions, accused the individual of obstructing arrest.
This occurs virtually every time law enforcement uses force against a suspect, and there are physical injuries they must justify were legally caused to the person.
Punishment You Will Face for Violating PC 148a1
Refusing arrest is considered a misdemeanor under California law. If found guilty of the crime, you will be subject to a maximum of 12 months in jail, one thousand U.S. dollars in fines, or both jail and a fine. The judge could sentence you to summary probation, enabling you to serve part of your time outside custody. However, the probation sentence could be revoked should you violate any of the probation terms the judge imposed against you.
Note that some counties like Los Angeles do not prosecute cases of PC 148a1 violation unless the defendant has been a repeat offender within the past twenty-four months, used physical force against the police officer or officers, or the charges are filed in relation to another crime that the district attorney generally does prosecute.
You Can Beat Resisting Arrest Charges To Avoid Punishment.
Fortunately, it is not the end of the road if you are accused of refusing arrest. You will still have the chance to fight and beat the charges against you. That way, you will avoid the consequences of a conviction. If you want to stand a chance at beating your charges, you want to hire a qualified and experienced attorney for legal representation.
An attorney can do much more to help you obtain a not-guilty verdict. For example, there are various defenses they can argue for you, much more effectively than you would if you were representing yourself. These defenses include the following:
It Was a False or an Unlawful Arrest.
You cannot be criminally liable for resisting arrest if the arrest was illegal in the first place. An arrest could be illegal or false in various ways. For example, false or unlawful arrests happen because of the following scenarios:
- Fabricated statements or planted evidence
- Invalid warrants
- Malicious actions, like vengeful purposes or personal remarks
- Making arrests with no warrant
If your lawyer can demonstrate that the police falsely placed you under arrest, the judge may have no option but to dismiss the resisting arrest charges against you.
You Were Only Defending Yourself
If the police were using more than necessary force to arrest you and you struggled with them, then it could be that you were defending yourself and not resisting arrest. However, the force you applied while struggling must have been reasonable for this legal defense to work. Your lawyer can review your charges to discover any police misconduct. Often, the charge of resisting arrest carries other charges like domestic violence, DUI, drug offenses, et cetera. That is why you want to hire an attorney who is highly experienced in all areas of criminal law to guarantee effective, competent legal representation.
Your Resisting Arrest Was Not Willful
A critical element of resisting arrest is doing so willfully. Arguments your lawyer can use to prove you never acted purposefully are:
- You honestly believed you were obeying the officer’s instructions. For example, it could be that you heard the law enforcement officer wrong, and the officer believed you were deliberately disobeying their instructions.
- You suffered from a health episode at the time of arrest—for example, it could be that you had a seizure, and law enforcement officers mistook it for resisting arrest.
- The act was accidental—it could be that you tripped and fell, which law enforcement officers misconstrued as resisting arrest.
You Were Wrongly Accused
Police officers are usually quick to accuse suspects of resisting arrest simply because they dislike their attitude or because the suspects ask why they are being placed under arrest. Additionally, a police officer might use the charge of resisting to attempt to cover up or justify the following:
- Racial profiling
- Police misconduct
- An illegal detention
- An unlawful or false arrest
- Using excessive force
If that is the case, your attorney can successfully prove that the police were lying. The lawyer can rely on evidence such as:
- Police body camera footage,
- Witness statements,
- The involved police officer’s personnel file, which might disclose a record of misconduct. The lawyer can obtain this file by filing a Pitchess motion.
If your lawyer successfully shows the officer’s story has no basis, the district attorney may dismiss your case.
The Police Did Not Have Any Probable Cause for Arrest
There are several cases where people are stopped or placed under arrest for resisting arrest without probable cause. Per the Fourth Amendment to the United States, a police officer must possess probable cause to make a legal arrest. If there was no probable cause, your attorney could request that the court exclude any evidence gathered after the improper arrest or stop from your case. This exclusion may lead to the reduction or dismissal of your charges.
Ultimately, the burden of proving guilt beyond reasonable doubt lies with the prosecutor. If meeting this burden is impossible, the judge should drop the case.
Plea BargainS for Resisting Arrest
Since PC 148a1 is closely related to multiple other crimes, a resisting arrest charge is usually the starting point of plea deals. A plea deal permits someone charged with a given violation to admit to committing another violation, often a less serious one, for a lenient sentence. Where PC 148a1 violation is the crime you are accused of, plea deals often accepted involve PC 415, disturbing the peace, or PC 602, trespass.
Defendants do not always initiate plea bargains, although that is often the case. Plea bargains can be cheaper, easier, and less embarrassing. They can also be the best option if the case facts are not looking too good for the defendant. However, the prosecution can agree to your lawyer's request and reduce your charges in return for you admitting to having committed a given crime since the prosecution establishes that it does not stand a chance of prevailing in the case.
A plea deal can take an extended period and may be costly. And even then, the judge must accept the plea deal as serving the interests of justice. Recall that a skilled defense lawyer can persuade the prosecution to agree to a plea deal because you do not have a past criminal record, were provoked, are young, or merely because it is not in the interest of justice to subject you to different charges.
Other Criminal Conduct Related to Resisting Arrest
Several offenses are related to resisting arrest. These crimes are defined as related since they are often prosecuted together or have similar facts that the D.A. must demonstrate for a conviction to occur. They include the following:
PC 69, Resisting an Executive Officer
Section 69 of the California Penal Code criminalizes a person resisting any executive officer in California. You break this law if you:
- Unlawfully and willfully try through violence or threats to prevent or deter an executive officer from doing a legal duty or
- Apply violence or force to obstruct any executive officer in conducting their legal duties.
Under California law, executive officers include, without limitation, police officers, highway patrol officers, sheriffs, judges, defense lawyers, government prosecutors, and any other elected official.
Resisting an executive officer is considered a wobbler violation, meaning the prosecution can press felony or misdemeanor charges based on case facts and a defendant’s criminal history. A misdemeanor conviction carries up to 12 months in jail. A felony conviction carries three years, two years, or sixteen months in prison.
PC 240, Assault
PC Section 240 is California law against the crime of simple assault. This law describes simple assault as any attempt to inflict violent harm upon another person. For the prosecution to secure a conviction for this crime, it must demonstrate four elements, which are:
- You perpetrated an act that would likely lead to using force against another person
- You did the act willfully
- You knew the act would make a reasonable party believe it would directly and likely lead to force being used against another.
- When you did the act, you possessed the present capability to utilize force against the other party.
Simple assault is deemed a misdemeanor punishable by up to a thousand dollars in fines and a jail term of six months.
PC 243(b) and (c), Battery of a Peace Officer
Sections 243(b) and 243(c) of the Penal Code describe the crime of battery of a peace officer as unlawfully and willfully touching a peace officer or other protected officials harmfully or offensively when they are involved in doing their official duties.
The court will consider you to have committed this crime if you battered the victim and were aware or should reasonably have been aware that they were a peace officer or any other protected party in the commission of their physical duties.
Violating this law is deemed a misdemeanor offense punishable by jail for 12 months and up to two thousand dollars in fines.
Other crimes that can be charged together with or instead of resisting arrest are:
- VC Section 2800.1 and VC 2800.2, evading arrest
- PC 148.9, presenting false identification to a police officer
- PC 148.5, making a false report of a crime
- PC 185, putting on a mask to evade police
- Sections 148.3 and 148.4 of the Penal Code, making false reports
Find a Skilled Criminal Defense Lawyer Near Me
A conviction for resisting arrest is not like most convictions. If a police officer stops you in the future and discovers that you have a resisting arrest conviction, it will surely turn the police encounter into an unpleasant one. Beating these charges is hard and requires knowing and understanding specific police procedures. An attorney can help you with this.
At Darwish Law, we will focus on the deviations and variations from proper police procedures involved in the charges against you, helping you achieve the most favorable outcome in your case. We have years of experience defending people accused of resisting arrest, so you can trust us to do the same when it comes to you. If you are charged in Santa Ana, contact us at 714-887-4810 for a complimentary consultation.