Montana Supreme Court hears challenge to obstruction conviction after man filmed traffic stop

HELENA — The Montana Supreme Court on Monday heard arguments over whether Sean Michael Dohmen’s convictions for obstructing a peace officer can stand after he filmed a routine traffic stop from a public sidewalk.

Carolyn Jabadlo, counsel for Dohmen, told the court that Dohmen “is being criminally punished for exercising his right to record the police in public,” and urged the justices to rule that the obstruction statute and the jury instructions used at trial prevented the jury from considering constitutionally protected recording. She said Dohmen stood 10 to 15 feet away from the stop, that three law-enforcement videos exist on the record but Dohmen’s recording does not, and that an officer called for backup after learning someone was filming.

The case centers on whether the jury was foreclosed from assessing constitutional defenses because of two jury instructions at trial. Counsel identified instruction 13, which told jurors that reasonable time, place and manner restrictions can limit First Amendment activity but did not define “reasonable,” and instruction 11, which told jurors that a restriction deemed reasonable would not be a defense to the obstruction charge. Jabadlo argued that combination left no practical means for jurors to find that constitutionally protected recording could…