State v. Shin

Citations

• 193 Conn. App. 348

Syllabus

Convicted of the crimes of interfering with an officer and disorderly conduct, the defendant appealed to this court, claiming, inter alia, that the evi- dence was insufficient to support his conviction. Police officers, who had been providing security at an event for Jewish athletes, were alerted that the defendant was driving across the country to various synagogues, and had posted a video on the Internet in which he stated that he was in the process of desecrating Jewish temples and was on a mission to rid the planet of Jewish people. When the police observed the defendant's parked car across the street from a Jewish temple, they approached and asked him for his driver's license and vehicle registration, which the defendant refused to provide. The police observed metal devices with wire attached to them inside the car, which the defendant told them he used to desecrate the temples. After the defendant refused the officers' requests to step out of his car, the police extricated him from the car and attempted to place him in a police vehicle. The defendant resisted the officers' efforts to place him in the police vehicle and screamed anti-Semitic comments loud enough to be heard by a crowd of bystanders nearby. Police officers who had watched the defendant's Internet video testified at trial about its contents. The trial court also declined, for lack of relevance, the defendant's request to issue a sub- poena to a rabbi from out of state whom the defendant claimed would testify that he had a cordial visit with the defendant and that the defen- dant was doing no harm while traveling around the country. Held: 1. The defendant's claim that his arrest and seizure by the police were illegal was unavailing; even if the defendant's arrest were illegal, it could not serve as the basis for overturning his conviction, as the defendant did not argue that evidence was obtained or used against him at trial as a result of his purported illegal arrest, and his claim that certain e