State v. Riggs
Supreme Court of Vermont
This was a grand juror’s complaint; and the case came to the county court by appeal. It was alleged in the complaint, that the respondents, at Ludlow, on the fourteenth of April, 1848, with force and arms, did break and distarb the public peace by then and there ringing and causing to be rung and tolled a certain church bell, and, well knowing that Zachariah Parker, Jr., of said Ludlow, was then living, did report and aver, that the said Parker was dead, and was to be buried…
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This was a grand juror’s complaint; and the case came to the county court by appeal. It was alleged in the complaint, that the respondents, at Ludlow, on the fourteenth of April, 1848, with force and arms, did break and distarb the public peace by then and there ringing and causing to be rung and tolled a certain church bell, and, well knowing that Zachariah Parker, Jr., of said Ludlow, was then living, did report and aver, that the said Parker was dead, and was to be buried on the next succeeding day, and did ring the said bell with intent to have it believed, that the said Parker was then…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Redfield, J.
This is certainly a case of the first impression. It seems to us very clear, that the acts charged in the complaint do not constitute an offence against the statute defining the ordinary *323modes of committing a breach of the public peace “ by tumultuous and offensive carriage, threatening, quarrelling, challenging, assaulting, beating, or striking.” The offence there defined is that of assault and battery, together with other kindred acts, of the nature named in the statute, and calculated to put one in fear of bodily harm, and disturbing…
2Cases cited1 opinion
- State v. BenedictSupreme Court of Vermont · 1839
3Cited by4 opinions
- State v. MatthewsSupreme Court of Vermont · 1870
- State v. CoffinSupreme Court of Vermont · 1891
- State v. BoydSupreme Court of Vermont · 1917
- State v. BarrowsSupreme Court of Vermont · 1885