Login | February 03, 2025
Appellate panel affirms ruling on man’s encounter with police chief
KEITH ARNOLD
Special to the Legal News
Published: February 3, 2025
A Fifth District Court of Appeals panel affirmed a Licking County Municipal Court judgment against a Utica man arrested during an early-morning encounter with the village police chief.
The 2-1 panel upheld Police Chief Cameron Dailey’s arrest of 44-year-old Ryan McKenzie, who was walking behind a closed business while carrying a shovel across his back at about 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 5, 2023.
“The totality of circumstances presented during the bench trial in this case established that Chief Dailey was able to point specific facts, coupled with reasonable inferences, that warranted his actions,” Fifth District Judge Craig Baldwin wrote for the majority. “Based upon the foregoing, we find that the appellant’s convictions on the charges of failure to disclose personal information and obstructing official business were supported by sufficient evidence, and were not against the manifest weight of the evidence.”
According to case background, Dailey observed McKenzie walking near a gas station across U.S. Route 62 while holding a shovel across his back early that morning.
Dailey reported that there was no traffic or other people around and that the restaurants and other businesses in the vicinity were closed at that time.
The police chief noticed McKenzie walk between a restaurant and a carwash and continue walking behind the restaurant, characterizing the behavior as suspicious, the summary noted.
Dailey proceeded to make contact with the man and pulled up in his cruiser next to McKenzie.
The man was immediately hostile to Dailey, yelling profanities at him and saying that Dailey had no right to stop him, summary detailed. He refused to provide his name as Dailey had requested and continued walking, shouting that he had no obligation to identify himself or to stop and telling Dailey that he was going fishing.
Dailey drove his cruiser ahead of McKenzie, stopped the vehicle, activated his lights and attempted to engage with the man again, ordering him to stop and to drop the shovel.
According to the summary, McKenzie, who continued to argue and refuse to identify himself, turned and began walking in the opposite direction.
The man would not comply until Dailey pulled his taser and ordered him again to comply. He dropped the shovel and stopped.
After identifying McKenzie through a local computerized reporting system, the police chief arrested him for failure to disclose personal information and obstruction of official business.
McKenzie was arraigned Sept. 13, 2023, and pleaded not guilty, the summary noted.
A bench trial proceeded April 24, 2024.
The trial court found McKenzie guilty of both charges and sentenced him to four days in jail and fines of $200 and $150 suspended.
McKenzie appealed to the Fifth District on the basis that the convictions were against the manifest weight of the evidence and were not supported by sufficient evidence.
“It was not unreasonable, under the totality of the circumstances, for Chief Dailey to believe that a criminal offense was being committed, had been committed, or was about to be committed,” Baldwin wrote. “Furthermore, … the appellant herein immediately began shouting and cursing at Chief Dailey, his volume so loud that had they been in a residential neighborhood the appellant’s yelling would have awakened people. The appellant submitted that he was fishing, but while there may have been a stream nearby the appellant was not in possession of a fishing pole at the time of his encounter with Chief Dailey. Based upon these factors, we find that Chief Dailey had reasonable suspicion to ask the appellant for his personal information.”
Fifth District Judge Andrew King concurred with Baldwin’s decision, while Presiding Judge William Hoffman wrote that Dailey’s attempt to stop McKenzie changed the encounter “from consensual to a detention,” for which the police chief had no reasonable grounds to do.
Copyright © 2025 The Daily Reporter - All Rights Reserved