Appeal
from the Superior Court, Third Judicial District, Trial Court
No. 3AN-13-402 CR Anchorage, Michael L. Wolverton, Judge.
Callie
Patton Kim, Assistant Public Defender, and Quinlan Steiner,
Public Defender, Anchorage, for the Appellant.
Eric
A. Ringsmuth, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Criminal
Appeals, Anchorage, and Craig W. Richards, Attorney General,
Juneau, for the Appellee.
Before: Mannheimer, Chief Judge, Allard, Judge, and Suddock,
Superior Court Judge. [*]
OPINION
MANNHEIMER, JUDGE
One
morning in January 2013, Barry Bernard Sapp Jr. dropped his
wife off at a downtown Anchorage office of the Alaska
Department of Corrections.
While
Sapp was sitting in his car in front of the office, he was
approached by a probation officer. This probation officer
(who was not supervising Sapp) told him, "Mr. Sapp,
I'd like you to come [into] the office for [a]
conversation."
Sapp
told the probation officer, "Okay", and he began to
maneuver his car as if to park it on the street near the
office. But then Sapp activated the locks on his car doors.
The probation officer tried fruitlessly to pull open the door
handle, and then he summoned several other Corrections staff.
The Corrections staff stood around Sapp's car and
directed him to pull over and park the car.
Instead,
Sapp "peel[ed] out" and drove away at high speed -
fishtailing, weaving through traffic, and ignoring traffic
signals. He collided with another vehicle, and then he drove
off without stopping.
For
these actions, Sapp was convicted of three crimes: failing to
stop at the direction of a peace officer, reckless driving,
and leaving the scene of an accident. [1] In this appeal,
Sapp challenges only one of these convictions: his conviction
for failing to stop at the direction of a peace officer.
Sapp
concedes that the probation officer directed him to park his
car and come into the Corrections office for a conversation,
and that he drove away instead of complying with the
probation officer's directive. But the statute Sapp was
convicted of violating - AS 28.35.182 - requires proof that a
driver "knowingly fail[ed] to stop as soon as [was]
practical and... reasonably safe ... under the circumstances
when requested or signaled to do so by a peace officer."
Sapp
argues that we should reverse his conviction for failing to
stop at the direction of a peace officer because the
probation officer who directed him to park his car was not a
"peace officer" for purposes of this statute. As we
are about to explain, we agree with Sapp for two reasons.
The
definition of "peace officer" codified in AS
01.10.060(7) governs our interpretation of AS 28.35.182, and
probation officers are not "peace officers" under
that definition
AS
01.10.060 contains various definitions that apply throughout
all "the laws of [this] state" - in other words,
throughout all of the Alaska Statutes - "unless the
context otherwise requires".
One of
the definitions codified in AS 01.10.060 is the definition of
"peace officer". According to AS 01.10.060(7),
"peace officer" means:
(A) an officer of the state troopers;
(B) a member of the police force of a ...