Conviction Is Reversed

A State Supreme Court of Appeals has reversed the conviction of a Springs man, William Cuthbert, who was found guilty in December 2014 of resisting arrest and disorderly conduct following a jury trial in East Hampton Justice Court, presided over by Justice Stephen Tekulsky.

During the trial, Mr. Cuthbert claim­ed police brutality in speaking about what had happened in January of that year, following a minor automobile accident in which his van had been struck by another vehicle. The roads were icy, he told the six-person jury, and police arrived at the scene in pickups borrowed from and marked by the Marine Patrol Department. After he told an officer he was “waiting for the cops,” he said, they exchanged words, and things got worse from there.

The appeals court justices, Anthony Marano, Bruce E. Tolbert, and Jerry Garguilo, focused on the disorderly conduct charge, determining that Mr. Cuthbert “became involved in a dispute with the officer, during which he allegedly raised his voice and used profanity.” They found that because the dispute remained confined to the two of them, it did not rise to the level of disorderly conduct. The charges, “did not allege that there was any public dimension to the incident,” they wrote.

The charge of resisting arrest was also defective, the justices found, reasoning that since there was no disorderly conduct, there was no probable cause for arrest. “The judgments of conviction are reversed, the accusatory instruments are dismissed, and the fines, surcharges, and fees, if paid, are remitted,” the decision concluded.