Charged with resisting arrest and disorderly conduct, defendant moved for dismissal of the accusatory instrument for facial insufficiency.

A police officer stated he observed defendant shouting and screaming obscenities, and such conduct created a public disturbance as it caused people to express annoyance and alarm. Defendant argued such allegations were insufficient to support a disorderly conduct charge.

TheCriminal Court, New York Countyagreed, noting the factual portion of the instrument contained no facts of an evidentiary character to support the allegation that defendant intended to cause a public inconvenience or alarm.

The court noted that while it was not required that members of the public react to the incident, there was nothing alleged to support a reasonable inference that defendant’s statements were intended to have a public impact or recklessly created such risk.

Also, there were no factual allegations describing how people expressed their annoyance or alarm. Therefore,the disorderly conduct charge was dismissed because the allegations failed to establish that defendant’s statements gave rise to a potential or immediate public problem.

As such, the information had no allegations to support the element that defendant’s arrest was authorized.

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