PEOPLE V. CONRAD 55 Cal.App.4th 896 (1997) CASE BRIEF

PEOPLE V. CONRAD

55 Cal.App.4th 896 (1997)

NATURE OF THE CASE: Conrad (D) sought review of a decision by the Superior Court of Solano County, which denied D's motion for acquittal and convicted D for disobedience of a lawful court order pursuant to Cal. Penal Code 166(a)(4).

FACTS: The Planned Parenthood clinic in Vallejo is situated at 990 Broadway, a 'busy avenue, with light commercial establishments on either side of' the clinic. The injunction against Ds was issued on August 1, 1991, after Ds had repeatedly obstructed the clinic entrances, interfered with traffic on the driveways, and harassed and intimidated clinic patients and staff. The injunction forbids specific harassing conduct and banishes the enjoined parties' 'picketing, demonstrating [and] counseling' activity to the sidewalk opposite the clinic on the other side of Broadway. The facility was still picked by a different group of people. At the trail for the alleged violation of the injunction, Ds testified that they were not members of Solano Citizens for Life, and did not know any of the enjoined parties. Most had traveled from other parts of California with a pro-life caravan of sorts, Operation Rescue's 'Summer of Missions,' a four-week camping trip and anti-abortion campaign with planned stops throughout the state. They had stopped in Vallejo expressly to test the limits of the injunction, which the California Supreme Court had recently upheld for the first time. A flyer distributed by Operation Rescue of California, advertising the Summer of Missions, mentioned the Vallejo injunction specifically. The prosecutor made her closing argument, incorporating the statements she had made against Ds' motion for acquittal: '[A] group of anti-abortion protesters doing the very things that are enjoined in the permanent injunction with knowledge of the injunction are in a sense standing in the shoes of the named litigants.' The trial judge found the Ds guilty.

ISSUE:

RULE OF LAW:

HOLDING AND DECISION:

LEGAL ANALYSIS:

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