Appellate Court Upholds Conviction of Disorderly Conduct Ordinance Violation
A parent was arrested for violation of a disorderly conduct ordinance, and was later convicted at trial. According to the court opinion, the arrest related to conduct of the parent towards a teacher at his child's school where he clenched his fists and cursed. He appealed his conviction on several grounds, including that his First Amendment rights were violated, that the city violated court discovery rules, and that the sentence was outside the city's authority.
The Appellate Court upheld his conviction in City of Naperville v. Penick. First, the Court rejected his First Amendment argument, finding that he engaged in more than speech during the incident. Second, the Court found his sentence (supervision and no contact/no entry order) to be within a home rule municipality's authority to set an appropriate penalty for violation of a disorderly conduct ordinance. Third, the Court rejected his argument that the city engaged in discovery violations, finding that a defendant is required to (but did not, in this case) obtain leave of court to engage in discovery in an ordinance violation proceeding. In short, the Court upheld his conviction.
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