People v. Cherry

121 N.E.2d 238 (1954)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

The police had D under observation for about a half hour. The police observed D loitering. Two unknown men and a woman approach D and engaged in a conversation, and then the police saw D enter a building which they were watching. Very shortly thereafter, D came out, according to officer Gilchrist, he walked to the corner, where Gilchrist approached D, and identified himself as a police officer and asked D to show some identification. Patrolman Pizzimenti was with Gilchrist and Pizzimenti also announced to D that he was a police officer. He said that defendant looked at the officers, walked away a few steps and stopped, and said that he did not believe they were 'cops,' and asked them to show him their police shields again. D then he started to run, brushing against Officer Pizzimenti, whereupon Patrolman Gilchrist, from the rear, grabbed D around the shoulders and D took Gilchrist's left hand by the wrist, put Gilchrist's thumb in his mouth and bit. D actually lived in the basement of 110 Madison Street, which was apparently the building the policemen were watching. He did absolutely nothing improper even to excite suspicion. But D was accosted and seized by two strangers, in ordinary street attire, claiming to be police officers, late at night as he was about to enter his home. D proceeded to resist his unlawful arrest by relying solely on his hands and his teeth. D was convicted of assault in the third degree on police officers. The lower courts affirmed.