Obstructing a Law Enforcement Officer in the Performance of his Duties

P.C. § 69(a) vs. P.C. § 148(a)(1)

Resisting Arrest

Whether or not P.C. § 148(a)(1) (resisting arrest) is a lesser included offense of P.C. § 69(a) (resisting an executive officer) depends upon under which theory the defendant is prosecuted; attempted resistance (no) or actual resistance (yes). 

Defendant Cody Ashton Kruse was dating Heather Koetter in September, 2019, when he went to visit her at her Escondido apartment.  Koetter already had several friends over, including Samantha Howell.  At some point, defendant and Koetter got into an argument over defendant exchanging text messages and talking with another girl.  Koetter asked defendant to leave, which he did.  However, he returned 20 minutes later because he’d forgotten his cellphone and backpack.  Things started to deteriorate when Koetter refused to let defendant back into the apartment to get his belongings.  At Howell’s insistence, Koetter eventually relented and opened the door.  Rather than just take his stuff and leave, however, defendant pushed his way in and sat down on the couch.  The situation now degraded into Koetter yelling and screaming at defendant, attempting to physically pull him off the couch, and punching on him.  As Koetter got more and more angry, and more and more physical, defendant merely sat there and laughed, telling Koetter he wasn’t going anywhere.  After about an hour of this, defendant went into Koetter’s bedroom where her seven-year-old daughter was sleeping and locked the door.  After some period of time, with Koetter yelling and pounding on the bedroom door, defendant finally came out.  At this point, Howell got involved, getting in defendant’s face and calling him a “little bitch.”  Defendant started to lose his cool. While standing “nose to nose” with Howell, defendant angrily told her he was going to put a bullet through her brain and kill her. Howell later testified that defendant’s threat scared her because she knew he had a ....