Section 2656 | CALCRIM (Jury Instructions)

officer/public officer/emergency medical technician) while the officer is in a
public place or the person taking the photograph or making the
recording is in a place where he or she has the right to be is not, by
itself, a crime.]
<When lawful performance is an issue, give the following paragraph and
Instruction 2670, Lawful Performance: Peace Offıcer.>
[A peace officer is not lawfully performing his or her duties if he or she
is (unlawfully arresting or detaining someone/ [or] using unreasonable or
excessive force in his or her duties). Instruction 2670 explains (when an
arrest or detention is unlawful/ [and] when force is unreasonable or
excessive).]
[[The People allege that the defendant (resisted[,]/ [or] obstructed[,]/ [or]
delayed)
<insert name, excluding title> by doing the
following:
<insert description of acts when multiple acts
alleged>.] You may not find the defendant guilty unless you all agree
that the People have proved that the defendant committed at least one of
the alleged acts of (resisting[,]/ [or] obstructing[,]/ [or] delaying) a (peace
officer/public officer/emergency medical technician) who was lawfully
performing his or her duties, and you all agree on which act (he/she)
committed.]
[If a person intentionally goes limp, requiring an officer to drag or carry
the person in order to accomplish a lawful arrest, that person may have
willfully (resisted[,]/ [or] obstructed[,]/ [or] delayed) the officer if all the
other requirements are met.]
New January 2006; Revised June 2007, August 2016, October 2021
BENCH NOTES
Instructional Duty
The court has a sua sponte duty to give this instruction defining the elements of the
crime.
The court may use the optional bracketed language in the penultimate paragraph to
insert a description of the multiple acts alleged if appropriate.
“[I]f a defendant is charged with violating section 148 and the arrest is found to be
unlawful, a defendant cannot be convicted of that section.” (People v. White (1980)
101 Cal.App.3d 161, 166 [161 Cal.Rptr. 541].) An unlawful arrest includes both an
arrest made without legal grounds and an arrest made with excessive force. (Id. at p.
167.) “[D]isputed facts bearing on the issue of legal cause must be submitted to the
jury considering an engaged-in-duty element.” (People v. Gonzalez (1990) 51 Cal.3d
1179, 1217 [275 Cal.Rptr. 729, 800 P.2d 1159].) The court has a sua sponte duty to
instruct that the defendant is not guilty of the offense charged if the arrest was
unlawful. (People v. Olguin (1981) 119 Cal.App.3d 39, 46–47 [173 Cal.Rptr. 663].)
CRIMES AGAINST GOVERNMENT
CALCRIM No. 2656
551

AUTHORITY
•
Elements. Pen. Code, § 148(a); see In re Muhammed C. (2002) 95 Cal.App.4th
1325, 1329 [116 Cal.Rptr.2d 21].
•
General-Intent Crime. In re Muhammed C. (2002) 95 Cal.App.4th 1325, 1329
[116 Cal.Rptr.2d 21].
•
Knowledge Required. People v. Lopez (1986) 188 Cal.App.3d 592, 599–600
[233 Cal.Rptr. 207].
•
Multiple Violations Permissible If Multiple Officers. Pen. Code, § 14