PEOPLE OF MI V JAMES HARVEY LEE
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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS
PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN,
UNPUBLISHED
May 2, 2000
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v
No. 213037
Washtenaw Circuit Court
LC No. 97-008598-FH
JAMES HARVEY LEE,
Defendant-Appellant.
Before: Wilder, P.J., and Sawyer and Markey, JJ.
MEMORANDUM.
Defendant appeals by right his conviction after a jury trial of attempted resisting and obstructing
a police officer. MCL 750.479; MSA 28.747. We affirm.
Defendant was charged with fleeing and eluding and attempted resisting and obstructing after
police officers attempted to arrest him after a traffic incident. Defendant argues that he was unlawfully
arrested at his home without a warrant, and the jury was not properly instructed as to the illegality of his
arrest. We disagree.
Defendant failed to object to the jury instructions. A party must object to a given jury
instruction to preserve the issue for appellate review. People v Cross, 202 Mich App 138, 148; 508
NW2d 144 (1993). Our review of this issue is limited to whether defendant has established a plain
error that affected his substantial rights. People v Carines, 460 Mich 750, 761-764, 774; 597 NW2d
130 (1999). In this case, the court instructed the jury that defendant’s arrest must be lawful in order to
find him guilty. No plain (i.e., clear or obvious) error occurred that affected defendant’s substantial
rights (i.e., prejudiced defendant). Id. at 763.
Where a defendant is charged with resisting arrest, the lawfulness of the arrest is a question of
fact for the jury. People v Dalton, 155 Mich App 591, 598; 400 NW2d 689 (1986). A peace officer
has statutory authority to arrest without a warrant if the officer has reasonable cause to believe that a
felony has been committed and that the person the officer seeks to arrest committed the felony. Id.;
MCL
764.15;
MSA
28.874.
Sufficient
evidence
was
presented
to
-1
allow the jury to find that the arrest was legal. People v Wolfe, 440 Mich 508, 515; 489 NW2d 748
(1992), amended 441 Mich 1201 (1992). There is no basis for setting aside the jury’s verdict.
We affirm.
/s/ Kurtis T. Wilder
/s/ David H. Sawyer
/s/ Jane E. Markey
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