On May 7, 2012, the Court in Matter of Victorino W., D-29783-11, dismissed two resisting arrest charges against two female students when it held there was insufficient evidence to show that neither of the two respondents knew they were being arrested. The first student Victoria W. allegedly pushed a safety agent during a cafeteria fight, climbed onto a table and refused to come down when ordered to do so. It is alleged the second student Karen B. bit a New York City police officer who was trying to escort her into an ambulance. The Court reasoned that “[b]ecause neither respondent was made aware that she was to be arrested, before she committed the acts alleged to constitute resisting arrest, and because the circumstances were not such as to give an inference the respondent knew she was to be arrested, the evidence in each case is insufficient as a matter of law to establish an intent to resist arrest.”
Pursuant to New York Penal Law § 205.30, “a person is guilty of resisting arrest when he intentionally prevents or attempts to prevent a police officer or peace officer from effecting an authorized arrest of himself or another person.” Resisting arrest is a class A misdemeanor.
Please contact Erik M. Bashian, a New York trial attorney and former juvenile prosecutor, if your child is the subject of an arrest and requires legal representation in the New York Family Court system.