R & O

Known more commonly as “R & O”, this criminal offense is considered an assault on a police officer. The R & O actually stands for resisting & obstructing, however, the statute covers “assault, batter, wound, resist, obstruct, oppose, or endanger a person who the individual knows or has reason to know is performing his or her duties” as a police officer. In Michigan, this offense is a felony.

What many new clients do not realize is that they can be convicted of this offense without ever having touched a police officer. The reason for that is that the vast majority of the R & O cases that we see at Nolan Law Offices are covered under the “obstruct” or “oppose” sections of the statute. That being said, an offender can obstruct or oppose a police officer, and then as a result be convicted of an “assaultive crime” without touching them. All that the prosecutor must prove is that a police officer gave the subject a lawful command that required the subject to either do something physically or refrain from doing something physically and that the subject did not comply with the command. The most common R & O that we see is a person that flees the scene on foot after being told by the officer to stop. Something as simple as refusing to sit down can become a felony charge very quickly. Generally speaking, the “lawful command” section of the statute is the only fact that comes into issue.