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Proposed law would expand definition of obstructing justice
KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: March 5, 2021
A pair of Republican lawmakers in the Ohio House of Representatives recently debuted a bill meant to draw a clearer distinction between peaceful protest and violent, unlawful action.
Reps. Jeff LaRe of Canal Winchester and Shane Wilkin of Hillsboro offered joint testimony of the measure, which proposes expansion of the offense of obstructing justice.
Filed as House Bill 22, the bill would include failure to follow a lawful order from a law enforcement officer or diverting a law enforcement officer’s attention under the umbrella of an obstruction offense.
“Events that have transpired over the course of these past several months have demonstrated a necessity to amend our state’s obstruction of justice law that will further protect law enforcement officers and members of the general public,” Wilkin told members of the House Criminal Justice Committee. “Peaceful protests have turned violent when bad actors who are not involved in a police matter begin to taunt, harass and overall interfere with law enforcement officers performing their duties.”
Analysis of the bill by the non-partisan Ohio Legislative Service Commission reasoned that the proposed expansion of the offense also would prohibit failure to follow a lawful order from a law enforcement officer under certain circumstances.
“Specifically, the bill prohibits a person, with purpose to hinder the discovery, apprehension, prosecution, conviction or punishment of another person for crime or to assist another to benefit from the commission of a crime, from failing to follow a lawful order from a law enforcement officer,” commission attorney Nicholas Keller wrote. “The bill also prohibits failure to follow a lawful order of a law enforcement officer in similar circumstances involving acts that, if committed by an adult, would be criminal.”
The penalty for obstructing justice varies depending on the underlying criminal conduct of the offender that the obstructing offender is aiding, analysis detailed. If the underlying crime is a misdemeanor, obstructing justice is a misdemeanor of the same degree as the underlying criminal conduct.
If the underlying criminal conduct is murder, aggravated murder, terrorism, human trafficking or a first- or second-degree felony, a penalty up to first-degree felony may apply to the offense.
For felonies of the third, fourth or fifth degree, however, obstructing justice is a fifth-degree felony.
LaRe said provisions of HB 22 further protect law enforcement officers from actions including taunting or striking, throwing objects and inhibiting or depriving a law enforcement officer of control over a detainee when these actions constitute an obstruction of justice.
Keller noted that the penalty for a person who is guilty of obstructing justice under this diverting attention provision is similarly structured based on the underlying criminal conduct the offender is aiding.
“If the underlying crime is a misdemeanor, obstructing justice is a misdemeanor of the same degree as the underlying criminal conduct,” he continued. “If the underlying criminal conduct is a felony, obstructing justice is a felony of the fifth degree.”
“The intent of this bill is not to infringe upon individuals’ freedom of speech and assembly, and we both support these rights and believe they are fundamental for our republic,” the lawmaker told the committee. “However, violence is not a protected right and should not be tolerated.
“The provisions of what constitutes an obstruction of justice found in the bill will create a deterrent on actions that escalate situations into violence by making it a punishable crime to interfere in the duties of a law enforcement officer after a lawful order is given.”
Nine fellow House members have signed on as cosponsors of the bill, which awaits further committee action.
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