Background
After a police sergeant stopped Christine A. Desrosiers in Presque Isle, she disputed his requests for her license, registration, and proof of insurance. When the sergeant told her that she was being detained and directed her to place her hands behind her back, Desrosiers crossed her arms and tried to pull away as he attempted to handcuff her. After being handcuffed, she dropped to the ground and had to be carried to the cruiser. She then left one foot outside the cruiser until an officer pushed it inside so the door could be closed.
A jury convicted Desrosiers of refusing to submit to arrest or detention by using physical force against a law enforcement officer, operating an unregistered vehicle, and violating a condition of release that required her to commit no new criminal act. The trial court denied her motions for judgment of acquittal, and she appealed.
The Court’s Holding
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court held that “uses physical force against” an officer under 17-A M.R.S. § 751-B(1)(B) includes any degree of physical force used in direct opposition to an officer’s own use of force in making an arrest or detention. The force need not be violent or capable of causing injury. Purely passive resistance without muscular effort—such as allowing gravity to cause a fall—does not qualify, so Desrosiers’s act of dropping to the ground was not itself sufficient.
The majority nevertheless concluded that Desrosiers used physical force when she crossed her arms and pulled away, requiring the sergeant to force her arms apart and down, and when she kept her foot outside the cruiser, requiring another officer to push it inside. It therefore affirmed the refusing-to-submit conviction and the related condition-of-release conviction. The court vacated the unregistered-vehicle conviction because the State did not prove that Desrosiers owned the vehicle or that it had never been registered by its current owner, and it remanded for entry of a judgment of acquittal on that count.
Key Takeaways
- Maine’s refusing-to-submit statute does not require violent force; even minimal muscular resistance may qualify when used directly to oppose an officer’s efforts to arrest or detain.
- Purely passive noncooperation without muscular effort, including simply dropping to the ground and allowing gravity to operate, is not the use of physical force under section 751-B(1)(B).
- A conviction for operating a vehicle that has never been registered by its current owner requires proof identifying the current owner and establishing that the owner never registered it.
Why It Matters
The decision draws a line between passive noncooperation and active muscular resistance under Maine’s refusing-to-submit statute. Conduct such as stiffening, pulling away, or bracing a limb may support a Class D conviction even when the defendant does not strike an officer and the officer easily overcomes the resistance.
The divided ruling also highlights the breadth of the majority’s interpretation. Chief Justice Stanfill and Justice Mead dissented from the affirmance of the resisting-detention and condition-of-release convictions, reasoning that Desrosiers’s conduct was passive and was not physical force directed against the officers.