Opinion
No. 40378
Decided April 12, 1967.
Criminal law — Giving false report to police officer — "False report" — Intent to mislead.
A person who telephones the police and tells them that a man has broken into her apartment and robbed her and repeats that report when the police respond to the call, when in fact the reports are false, the person making the report having later admitted that she conspired with another person to commit the robbery, is guilty of violating a city ordinance, which provides in pertinent part that "no person shall knowingly give a false * * * report to the police department * * * with intent to mislead * * * such officer * * *."
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Cuyahoga County.
At 9:30 p.m. on October 14, 1965, the defendant called the East Cleveland police by telephone and reported that a man had broken into her apartment and robbed and beat her.
When the police and detectives responded in answer to defendant's call, the defendant told police that a man had forced his way into her suite and assaulted her and forced her to disclose the whereabouts or hiding place of a considerable amount of money that belonged to her father. The police took her to the hospital, where her attorney met her. Her attorney returned with her to her home. Several hours later, in the presence of her attorney, she gave and signed a confession, which was witnessed by a detective and by her attorney and which stated that her report to the police had been a lie, and that, in fact, she had planned the robbery with a man by the name of Rossi and they had carried it out as planned.
Her father declined to prosecute when he found that his daughter was involved.
The defendant was tried in the East Cleveland Municipal Court and convicted of the crime of making a false report to the police in violation of Section 501.08 of Ordinance No. 5464 of the City of East Cleveland. This ordinance reads almost exactly the same as Section 2923.42, Revised Code.
Upon appeal the Court of Appeals reversed the judgment of the trial court.
The cause is before this court upon the allowance of a motion to certify the record.
Mr. Donald K. Barclay, for appellant.
Mr. Lincoln R. Thorman, for appellee.
The sole question presented to this court is the construction and legislative intent of the ordinance.
The ordinance provides in pertinent part:
"No person shall knowingly give a false * * * report to the police department * * * with intent to mislead * * * such officer * * *."
The facts are undisputed. The defendant violated the ordinance. In her confession she said: "* * * I called the police and told them a man had broken into my apartment and robbed and beat me. The police and detectives came and questioned me about the robbery and I told them a lie about how it happened."
At an earlier point in her confession, the defendant stated:
"* * * Billy asked me what I was going to do about the $1,200 [the money which she had previously stolen from her father]. I said I didn't know. He figured that if all of the money was taken from my father's room and we made it look like a robbery that I wouldn't get bounced (trouble) from my father."
The defendant gave a false report to the police when she called them on the telephone to summon an officer, and she gave a false report to the police when they came to her apartment in answer to her call. She made these false reports to the police with "intent to mislead * * * such officer."
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is, therefore, reversed, as contrary to law.
Judgment reversed.
TAFT, C.J., ZIMMERMAN, MATTHIAS, HERBERT, SCHNEIDER and BROWN, JJ., concur.