State v. Evans

The crime of initiating a false report under ORS 162.375 requires that a person “knowingly initiate a false alarm or report that is transmitted to a . . . law enforcement agency . . . that deals with injuries involv[ing] danger to life or property.” However, the statute only prohibits false statements that would initiate an investigation, not any false statements to police. State v. McCrorey, 216 Or App 301, 306 (2007).

Evans appealed a conviction of initiating a false report. Evans filed a report with the police that alleged a doctor harassed and assaulted her children as they were in the waiting room.  The trial court found that although the harassment report may have been true, the allegations of assault had no foundation, and denied her motion for acquittal. The crime of initiating a false report under ORS 162.375 requires that a person “knowingly initiate a false alarm or report that is transmitted to a . . . law enforcement agency . . . that deals with injuries involv[ing] danger to life or property.” However, the statute only prohibits false statements that would initiate an investigation, not any false statements to police. State v. McCrorey, 216 Or App 301, 306 (2007). The Court held that Evans’ report to the police accurately reported: “facts that could constitute a crime of harassment”, and that only some of the report contained false “facts that could constitute a crime of assault.”  The Court reasoned that in cases where the report contains both true and false information, “the state must prove that the false statements either did (or would have) ‘gotten the ball rolling' on the expenditure of resources,” and the record did not establish such evidence. Reversed.