Pedestrian Appeals Disorderly Conduct Case
It isn’t just Sen. Larry Craig who’s changed his mind about pleading guilty to a disorderly conduct charge. The case of Brooklyn man who spent a night in jail after apparently being charged with disorderly conduct simply because he was standing on a public sidewalk in Manhattan may soon help define the minimum threshold of disturbance required under state law to establish a violation.
Three years after the 2004 incident, his case is now before the New York Court of Appeals, which heard arguments today about whether the fact that Matthew Jones was standing at 42nd Street and Seventh Avenue in Times Square at about 2 a.m., allegedly blocking other pedestrians from continuing along the sidewalk, constituted a crime, reports the New York Times. Jones contends that his misdemeanor conviction should be overturned, despite his plea, because his conduct didn’t establish a crime, and the judges seemed sympathetic, the newspaper reports.
“All I could think of was a bunch of lawyers from the New York City Bar Association standing around trying to figure out where to have lunch,” said Judge Eugene F. Pigott Jr. The bar association’s offices are less than two blocks from Times Square.
A decision is expected next month.
As discussed in earlier ABAJournal.com posts, Craig’s case–which is now on appeal in Minnesota–has made disorderly conduct a hotter legal topic than it has been in years.
