Vermont v. Spencer
Annotate this CaseDefendant Chad Spencer was convicted by jury of resisting arrest. Three uniformed state troopers were dispatched to serve a relief-from-abuse order on defendant. When the troopers explained their purpose, defendant became angry and stormed off inside the house. As was their practice to read the order to the recipient and obtain the latter’s signature on a return of service, the troopers asked defendant whether they could enter the home. When defendant consented, the officers followed him inside. There, defendant became increasingly agitated, and started yelling and swearing at the officers. At one point, defendant moved quickly and aggressively toward one of the troopers. Thinking he was being attacked, the other officers interceded and tried to arrest defendant for assaulting an officer. Defendant did not comply with the officers’ verbal demands; he was handcuffed, and placed inside a police cruiser, continuing to pull away and kicking an officer in the chin on the way. On appeal, defendant argued the superior court erred when it instructed jurors that whether he was read his Miranda rights was irrelevant to their consideration of the charge. The Vermont Supreme Court clarified the relevance of Miranda warnings to the resisting-arrest offense, and held on evidentiary grounds, there was no error in this case.
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