Find Legal Information

29-02 Prevention of Public Offenses

Download pdf

CHAPTER 29-02PREVENTION OF PUBLIC OFFENSES29-02-01.Lawful resistance to commission of offense, by whom made. Lawfulresistance to the commission of a public offense may be made:1.By the party about to be injured; or2.By other parties.29-02-02. Resistance by party about to be injured. Resistance sufficient to prevent apublic offense may be made by a party about to be injured:1.To prevent an offense against the party's person or the party's family or some<br>member thereof; or2.To prevent an illegal attempt by force to take or injure property in the party's lawful<br>possession.29-02-03. Third person may resist offense. Any person, in aid or defense of a personabout to be injured by a public offense, may make resistance sufficient to prevent the offense.29-02-04.Public offense may be prevented by officers.Public offenses may beprevented by the intervention of officers of justice:1.By requiring security to keep the peace;2.By providing police in cities and by requiring their attendance in exposed places; and3.By suppressing riots.29-02-05.Persons aiding officers justified.Whenever officers of justice areauthorized to act in the prevention of public offenses, other persons who by their command act in<br>their aid are justified in so doing.29-02-06. Complaint for threatening, before whom laid. A complaint may be laidbefore any magistrate mentioned in section 29-01-14, authorized by law to act within the county,<br>that a person has threatened to commit an offense against the person or property of another.29-02-07. Complaint as to threatened offense. A complaint within the meaning ofsection 29-02-06 is a statement in writing, made to a magistrate, that a person has threatened to<br>commit an offense against the person or property of another, and subscribed and sworn to by the<br>complainant.29-02-08.Magistrate must issue warrant.If it appears from a complaint to amagistrate that there is just reason to fear the commission of an offense threatened by the<br>person complained of, the magistrate shall issue a warrant directed generally to the sheriff of the<br>county, marshal, or policeman of the city, reciting the substance of the complaint and<br>commanding the officer forthwith to arrest the person complained of and to bring that person<br>before the magistrate.29-02-09. Procedure when charge controverted. If a person complained of is broughtbefore a magistrate upon the charge that that person threatened to commit an offense against<br>another, the magistrate, if the charge is controverted, shall take testimony in relation thereto.<br>The evidence on demand of the defendant must be reduced to writing and subscribed by the<br>witnesses.Page No. 129-02-10. When accused must be discharged. If it appears that there is no just reasonto fear the commission of an offense alleged to have been threatened, the person complained of<br>must be discharged.29-02-11. When accused must give undertaking. If there is just reason to fear thecommission of an offense, the person complained of may be required to enter into an<br>undertaking in such sum, not exceeding one thousand dollars, as the magistrate may direct, with<br>one or more sufficient sureties to abide the order of the next district court of the county, and in<br>the meantime to keep the peace toward the people of this state, and particularly toward the<br>complainant.29-02-12. When undertaking is or is not given. If an undertaking to keep the peace asrequired by section 29-02-11 is given, the party complained of must be discharged. If the party<br>does not give it, the magistrate shall commit the person to prison specifying in the warrant the<br>requirement to give security, the amount thereof, and the omission to give the same.29-02-13.Accused committed - How discharged - Undertaking transmitted todistrict court. If a person complained of for threatening to commit an offense against the person<br>or property of another is committed for not giving security, that person, upon giving the same,<br>may be discharged by any municipal judge who is authorized to act as a committing magistrate,<br>or by the judge of the district court of the county.Any undertaking so accepted must betransmitted by the acting magistrate to the district court of the county for disposition at the next<br>term.29-02-14. Assault in presence of court - Security required - Committed on default.A person who in the presence of a court or magistrate assaults or threatens to assault another, or<br>to commit an offense against another's person or property, or who contends with another with<br>angry words, may be ordered by the court or magistrate to give security, as is provided in section<br>29-02-11, or if that person refuses to do so that person may be committed as is provided in<br>section 29-02-12.29-02-15. Accused must appear at district court. A person who has entered into anundertaking to keep the peace shall appear on the first day of the next term of the district court of<br>the county. If that person does not, the court may forfeit that person's undertaking and order it to<br>be prosecuted unless that person's default is excused.29-02-16.Complainant not appearing - Accused discharged.If the one whocomplained of a person who has entered into an undertaking to keep the peace does not appear<br>on the first day of the next term of the district court of the county, the person complained of may<br>be discharged unless good cause to the contrary is shown.29-02-17.Procedure when parties appear.If the complainant and accused bothappear, as is required by sections 29-02-15 and 29-02-16, the court may hear their proofs and<br>allegations, and may discharge the undertaking or require a new one for a time not exceeding<br>one year.29-02-18. When undertaking broken. An undertaking to keep the peace is broken onthe failure of a person complained of to appear at the district court as provided in section<br>29-02-15 or upon that person's being convicted of a breach of the peace.29-02-19.Action upon the undertaking to keep peace.If the state's attorneyproduces to the district court to which an undertaking to keep the peace is returned, evidence<br>that the principal has been convicted of a breach of the peace, that court shall order the<br>undertaking to be prosecuted and the state's attorney thereupon shall commence an action upon<br>it in the name of this state.29-02-20. What alleged in action. In an action prosecuted for breach of an undertakingto keep the peace, the offense stated in the record of conviction must be alleged as the breach of<br>the undertaking, and such record is conclusive evidence thereof.Page No. 229-02-21. Limitation. Security to keep the peace or to be of good behavior cannot berequired except as is prescribed in this chapter.29-02-22.Costs to be taxed.In all cases in which security is furnished under theprovisions of this chapter to keep the peace, the court, in addition to the orders mentioned in this<br>chapter, shall tax the costs against the complainant or defendant, or both, as justice may require,<br>and shall enter judgment therefor. Such judgment may be enforced as a judgment for costs in a<br>criminal case, and execution may issue therefor.29-02-23. Police to attend public meetings - Direction. The mayor or other officerhaving the direction of the police in a city shall order a force sufficient to preserve the peace to<br>attend any public meeting when that person is satisfied that a breach of the peace is reasonably<br>apprehended.29-02-24.When officers may disperse assembly.If the persons assembled andcommanded to disperse do not immediately disperse, any magistrate or law enforcement officer<br>may command the aid of a sufficient number of persons and may proceed in such manner as in<br>that person's judgment is necessary to disperse the assembly and arrest the offenders.Page No. 3Document Outlinechapter 29-02 prevention of public offenses