Resist or Hinder Police Officer in The Execution of Duty

Our client was charged with Hindering a police officer in the execution of duty.

The police alleged that our client was asked many times to leave a scene where his friend was overdosing on the footpath, and refused to do so. Our client continually shouted at Police demanding that they do their job properly and perform the correct first aid on his friend, rather than just wait for the ambulance to arrive.

The matter proceeded to a defended hearing. Our client gave evidence that he believed that his friends life was in danger, and behaved the way he did to protect his friend, whose life he thought was in danger.

The magistrate accepted that our client acted in necessity, and was found not guilty of the charges.

Our client was charged with resisting an officer in the execution of duty after being arrested at a soccer match for affray.

Our client had resisted the police as they tried to arrest him then failed to comply with police directions to settle down and stop resisting arrest. Our client pleaded guilty to both the affray and resist officer charges.

Our solicitor was able to convince the Magistrate at the Downing Centre Local Court that the objective seriousness, which is the degree of seriousness relevant to the offences committed by our client, was low.

Furthermore our client had strong personal circumstances which the court looked favourably upon.

Our client was placed on an 18 month good behaviour bond under Section 10 for both offences without any criminal record or conviction.

He remains without a criminal record. An excellent result for our client.

Our client was charged with Hinder police officer in the execution of duty.

The police alleged that our client was asked many times to leave the scene where his friend was overdosing on the footpath, but our client refused, continually shouting at the police to do their job properly and perform the correct first aid on his friend, rather than just waiting for the ambulance to arrive.

The matter proceeded to a Defended Hearing and our client gave evidence that he reasonably and honestly believed that the police were not performing the correct first aid on his friend and that he believed that his friend’s life was in danger.

The magistrate accepted our client’s evidence and concluded that they could not find beyond all reasonable doubt that our client did in fact ‘hinder’ police.

The matter was dismissed.

Our client pleaded guilty to assaulting police and resisting arrest.

The circumstances in which the offence occurred involved our client sitting in a gutter in Sydney, soaking wet and wearing only one shoe. When Police noticed our client he hopped over to Police. He swore at Police and then pushed an officer who was sitting in the Police car making contact with his left eye. Police attempted to arrest our client during which he resisted by attempting to struggle free.

The reason for our client’s strange and highly uncharacteristic behaviour is that he had taken bad LSD which had severe side effects. Our client’s friend who took the same LSD ended up in hospital.

[jcol/]

Our client was sentenced before the Downing Centre Local Court where our solicitor persuasively argued for a section 10 on the basis of our client’s good character and sincere remorse following an awful lesson in the consequences of illicit drugs.

Our client received a section 10(1)(b) bond for 2 years.

This was an excellent result for our client who was a young man with all his life ahead of him.

1. Crimes Act 1900 – SECT 546C
Resisting etc police
Any person who resists or hinders or incites any person to assault, resist or hinder a police officer in the execution of his or her duty shall be liable on conviction before the Local Court to imprisonment for 12 months or to a fine of 10 penalty units, or both.

2. Crimes Act 1900 – SECT 58
Assault with intent to commit a serious indictable offence on certain officers
Whosoever: assaults any person with intent to commit a serious indictable offence, or assaults, resists, or willfully obstructs any officer while in the execution of his or her duty, such officer being a constable, or other peace officer, custom-house officer, prison officer, sheriff’s officer, or bailiff, or any person acting in aid of such officer, or
assaults any person, with intent to resist or prevent the lawful apprehension or detainer of any person for any offence, shall be liable to imprisonment for 5 years (two years if dealt with in the Local Court

Our client was out drinking with a friend when a disturbance occurred with Hotel Security. Police attended and a scuffle started where our client became involved. He and his friend were arrested and charged with Resist/Hinder police Officer and Assault Police Officer. We successfully negotiated with Police over the alleged facts and represented our client at a sentence hearing. Submissions were made to the Magistrate who was persuaded not to record a criminal conviction against our client but to place him on a Good Behavior Bond for a period of 18 months. The Magistrate was swayed by the submissions in relation to ‘any other matter that the court thinks proper to consider’ those being the ‘overwhelming subjective material and family support displayed’.

The Co-offender was convicted receiving a Criminal Record and a Bond.

Our client came to LY Lawyers after a defended hearing gone wrong in the Local Court. She was convicted by the Magistrate of Assaulting Police and Resisting Arrest and put on a good behaviour bond under section 9.

An appeal was lodged on both severity and conviction ground. After receiving advice, our client gave us instructions to proceeded on a severity basis only. After obtaining all the documents we needed, our solicitor was successful on appeal and our client was placed on a bond under section 10(1)(b) for 18 months for both assaulting Police and resiting Police, despite the strong objections from the Director of Public Prosecution.

Judge Sides of Parramatta District Court agreed with our submissions and proceeded to dismiss the charges.

This was a particularly good result as the assault was instigated by our client after Police were leaving the scene.