Weapons, drug and public order offenses

Some of the offenses officers deal with most often have no individual victim at the scene. A person carrying a knife in a bar, a car with a loaded handgun under the seat, a bag of pills in a jacket pocket, a crowd that refuses to disperse, a man who gives a false name to avoid a warrant: each is a crime against public safety or the administration of justice rather than against a particular person. These offenses give officers a great deal of discretion, and they are also the offenses most often challenged in court, because the evidence usually comes from a search, a stop or a conversation with police. Professor Desjardins tells the class that he has seen more weapons and drug cases lost on constitutional grounds than on the elements, and that the law of search covered in LES-111 and LES-112 goes hand in hand with this lesson. Here the focus is on what the offenses are and what officers must prove.

Weapons

Ohio defines a deadly weapon in R.C. 2923.11 as any instrument, device or thing capable of inflicting death and designed or specially adapted for use as a weapon, or possessed, carried or used as a weapon. A kitchen knife carried for protection in a waistband can therefore be a deadly weapon, while the same knife in a picnic basket is not. Carrying concealed weapons, under R.C. 2923.12, prohibits knowingly carrying or having, concealed on one's person or ready at hand, a deadly weapon other than a handgun, a handgun other than a dangerous ordnance, or a dangerous ordnance, subject to the exceptions discussed below. Dangerous ordnance, such as explosive devices, sawed-off firearms and automatic firearms, is heavily restricted under R.C. 2923.17 and federal law.

Firearms law in the United States is shaped by the Second Amendment. In New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen (2022), the Supreme Court held that the Second Amendment protects carrying a handgun in public for self-defense and that gun laws must be consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation; in United States v. Rahimi (2024), it upheld the federal ban on possession by people subject to domestic violence restraining orders. Since June 2022, under Senate Bill 215, Ohio has allowed adults 21 and older who are not otherwise prohibited to carry a concealed handgun without a license; concealed handgun licenses are still issued and are useful for carrying in other states. A person carrying a concealed handgun must, if stopped by police and asked, disclose that he or she is carrying, and must keep hands in plain sight and follow the officer's lawful orders. Having weapons while under disability, under R.C. 2923.13, prohibits possession by people who are fugitives, are under indictment for or have been convicted of a felony offense of violence or a drug felony, are drug dependent, or have been found mentally incompetent; it is a felony of the third degree. Federal law, in 18 U.S.C. 922(g), separately prohibits possession by felons, unlawful drug users, people subject to qualifying protection orders and others.

When a patrol officer finds a firearm, the first questions are whether the person may lawfully possess it, which the officer checks through LEADS, Ohio's law enforcement data system, and NCIC; whether it was stolen; and whether it is being carried as Ohio law allows. In a vehicle, R.C. 2923.16 prohibits carrying a loaded firearm in a way that makes it accessible to the operator or a passenger unless the person is lawfully carrying a concealed handgun, and requires long guns to be unloaded and in a closed case or otherwise secured. Ms. Liu reminds the class that having weapons under disability is one of the most frequently charged felonies in Ohio, and that the officer's notes must record exactly where the firearm was found and who had access to it, because possession must be proved.

Possession, constructive and joint

Weapons and drug offenses both depend on possession, and the law of possession from lesson 3 applies directly. A person has personal possession of what is on his or her body or under direct control. In Ohio, possession is defined in R.C. 2925.01(K) for drugs as having control over a thing or substance, and courts recognize constructive possession where a person knowingly exercises dominion and control over an object even though it is not within immediate physical possession. Mere presence near an item, or access to the place where it is found, is not enough by itself, and R.C. 2901.21(D)(1) makes possession a voluntary act only if the possessor knowingly procured or received the thing or was aware of control over it long enough to end possession. A handgun found under the passenger seat of a car with three occupants is the classic hard case. The officer must look for evidence that links a particular person to it: ownership of the car, the person's position, fingerprints or DNA, admissions, the gun's appearance in the person's phone, or items such as a holster on the person.

Drug offenses

Ohio's drug offenses are in R.C. Chapter 2925. Possession, under R.C. 2925.11, is knowingly obtaining, possessing or using a controlled substance; trafficking, under R.C. 2925.03, covers knowingly selling or offering to sell a controlled substance, and also preparing it for shipment, shipping, transporting, delivering, preparing for distribution or distributing it, knowing or having reasonable cause to believe it is intended for sale. Penalties are graded by the drug's schedule and by the amount compared with the bulk amount defined in R.C. 2925.01, and are increased near schools and juveniles. The federal Controlled Substances Act sets out the five federal schedules and federal offenses. Ohio voters approved recreational marijuana for adults 21 and older in November 2023, and the legislature has since adjusted the rules; adults may possess limited amounts, and selling without a license, selling to people under 21 and driving under the influence remain offenses.

Ohio's 911 Good Samaritan law, in R.C. 2925.11(B)(2), protects a person who seeks or obtains medical help for a drug overdose, or who experiences one and receives help, from prosecution for minor drug possession, if the person obtains a screening and referral for treatment within 30 days; the protection is limited in how often it can be used. Many Ohio counties have drug courts and diversion programs, and officers can refer people to treatment through programs such as quick response teams that visit people after an overdose. Jesse Morningstar says the overdose crisis has hit his community hard, and that people there are more likely to call for help when they know they will not be charged.

The difference between simple possession and possession for the purpose of trafficking is often the most important judgment in a drug file, and it is made from the circumstances. Priya Sandhu writes a short program that scores the indicators from an officer's notes. The weights are not law; they reflect the kinds of facts courts and expert witnesses consider, and the class discusses which ones the notes must prove.

# Indicators of possession for the purpose of trafficking (illustrative weights, not law)
indicators = {
    "quantity beyond personal use": 3,
    "packaged in individual doses": 3,
    "digital scale": 2,
    "debt list or customer ledger": 3,
    "messages arranging sales": 4,
    "large amount of cash in small bills": 2,
    "more than one phone": 1,
    "no smoking or injecting equipment": 1,
}
files = {
    "A: 1.2 g in one bag, pipe in pocket": [],
    "B: 14 baggies, scale, 860 in cash": ["packaged in individual doses", "digital scale",
                                          "large amount of cash in small bills"],
    "C: 28 g, two phones, sales texts, no pipe": ["quantity beyond personal use", "more than one phone",
                                                  "messages arranging sales", "no smoking or injecting equipment"],
}
for name, found in files.items():
    score = sum(indicators[i] for i in found)
    view = "supports trafficking" if score >= 6 else "consistent with personal use"
    print(f"{name:45s} score {score:2d}  {view}")
    for i in found:
        print(f"    {i}")

A: 1.2 g in one bag, pipe in pocket           score  0  consistent with personal use
B: 14 baggies, scale, 860 in cash             score  7  supports trafficking
    packaged in individual doses
    digital scale
    large amount of cash in small bills
C: 28 g, two phones, sales texts, no pipe     score  9  supports trafficking
    quantity beyond personal use
    more than one phone
    messages arranging sales
    no smoking or injecting equipment

File A has no indicators at all; file B is a typical street-level trafficking file; and file C is strong even without packaging, because messages arranging sales are direct evidence of the purpose. The point of the exercise, Professor Desjardins says, is not the score but the habit of writing down every indicator, with photographs of the packaging, the scale and the cash, so that an expert can later explain what they mean.

Public order offenses

Disorderly conduct, under R.C. 2917.11, covers recklessly causing inconvenience, annoyance or alarm to another by fighting or threatening harm, making unreasonable noise or an offensively coarse utterance, insulting or taunting someone in a way likely to provoke a violent response, hindering movement in a public place, or creating a physically offensive or hazardous condition; it also covers being voluntarily intoxicated in public in a way that creates a risk. It is usually a minor misdemeanor, rising to a misdemeanor of the fourth degree if the person persists after a reasonable warning. Because disorderly conduct can involve speech, officers must respect the First Amendment: words alone are punishable only when they are fighting words likely to provoke an immediate violent reaction or true threats, and Ohio courts have overturned convictions based on rude language directed at police. Riot and aggravated riot, under R.C. 2917.02 and 2917.03, cover participating with four or more others in a course of disorderly conduct, and inducing panic, under R.C. 2917.31, covers causing the evacuation of a place by false reports or threats.

Offenses against the administration of justice

Obstructing official business, under R.C. 2921.31, covers doing any act, without privilege, that hampers or impedes a public official in the performance of lawful duties, with purpose to prevent, obstruct or delay that performance; Ohio courts have held that refusing to answer questions or merely arguing is not enough, but giving false information or physically interfering can be. Resisting arrest, under R.C. 2921.33, covers recklessly or by force resisting or interfering with a lawful arrest. Failure to comply with an order or signal of a police officer, under R.C. 2921.331, covers fleeing from police in a vehicle and carries serious felony penalties when the flight creates a substantial risk of serious harm. Falsification, under R.C. 2921.13, covers false statements made to mislead a public official, and R.C. 2921.29 requires a person to give name, address and date of birth when an officer reasonably suspects the person has committed, is committing or is about to commit a crime, or witnessed a felony. Violating a protection order, under R.C. 2919.27, is a separate offense that officers can enforce on the spot.

In every one of these offenses, the lawfulness of the officer's own conduct is an element or a central issue. A person cannot be guilty of resisting arrest if the officer was not acting lawfully, for example in an arrest without grounds. Amara Okafor notes that this makes the officer's notes on grounds for each step, the stop, the detention and the arrest, part of the proof of the offense itself.