Page 39 - May June 2019 TPA Journal
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public safety.  The City does not show that the      grounds  under  the  First  and  Fourteenth
        location or length of time that  Taylor’s vehicle    amendments to the federal Constitution. We agree
        was parked created the type of “hazard” or traffic   with the court of appeals that the statute, if
        impediment amounting to a public safety concern.     interpreted in accordance with its plain meaning,
        Nor does the City demonstrate that delaying a        is not overbroad because it does not reach a
        search would result in “injury or ongoing harm to    substantial amount of constitutionally protected
        the community.” To the contrary, at the time of the  speech, in that it applies only to a limited number
        search, Taylor’s vehicle was lawfully parked in a    of people whose communications have been
        proper parking location, imposing no safety risk     restricted by a judge through a bond or protective
        whatsoever. Because the purpose of chalking is to    order, and it prohibits only communications that
        raise revenue, and not to mitigate public hazard,    are intentionally or knowingly made in a
        the City was not acting in its “role as [a]          threatening or    harassing manner towards
        community caretake[.]”                               particular protected individuals.  We similarly
                                                             conclude that the statute, as applied to appellant’s
        For the reasons above, we REVERSE the district       conduct, is not impermissibly vague because the
        court’s order granting the City’s motion to          plain statutory  terms  are  such  that  they  would
        dismiss and REMAND for further proceedings           afford a person of ordinary intelligence a
        consistent with this order.                          reasonable opportunity to know that his course of
                                                             conduct would be prohibited.  Accordingly, we
        Taylor v. City of Saginaw, No. 17-2126, 6th
                                                             will affirm the court of appeals’s judgment
        Circuit Court of Appeals, April 22, 2019.
                                                             upholding appellant’s conviction.
        ****************************************
                                                             Wagner v. State,  No. PD-0659-15,  Tex. Crim.
        ******************************
                                                             App.   Feb. 14, 2018.

                                                             ****************************************
        PEN.      CODE       SECTION         25.07    IS     ******************************
        CONSTITUTIONAL.

        In this case, we consider the constitutionality of   SEARCH        &     SEIZURE        –    ASSET
        Penal Code Section 25.07(a)(2)(A). Under that        FORFEITURE          LIMITED        BY      8TH
        statute, the State may prosecute an individual who   AMENDMENT
        has intentionally or knowingly communicated in a
        “threatening  or  harassing  manner” with  another    Timbs  pleaded  guilty  in  Indiana  state  court  to
        person in violation of a judicially issued protective  dealing in a con trolled substance and conspiracy
        order or bond condition.                             to commit theft. At the time of Timbs’s arrest, the
                                                             police seized a Land Rover SUV Timbs had pur -
        Wagner, appellant, was charged and convicted
                                                             chased for $42,000 with money he received from
        under that statute after a jury determined that he
                                                             an insurance policy when his father died.  The
        communicated with his estranged wife, Laura, in a
                                                             State sought civil forfeiture of  Timbs’s ve hicle,
        harassing manner in violation of a protective order
                                                             charging that the SUV had been used to transport
        that had been issued against him for her protection
                                                             heroin. Ob serving that  Timbs had recently
        due to a history of family violence. The court of
                                                             purchased the vehicle for more than four times the
        appeals affirmed appellant’s conviction on direct
                                                             maximum $10,000 monetary fine assessable
        appeal over his challenge to the statute’s
                                                             against him for his drug conviction, the trial court
        constitutionality on overbreadth and vagueness

        May/June 2019           www.texaspoliceassociation.com  •  866-997-8282                          35
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