Appellate court tosses white supremacist pastor's resisting arrest conviction

In a decision issued today, The Missouri Southern District Court of Appeals reversed the resisting arrest conviction of self-proclaimed white supremacist pastor of the Sacerdotal Church of David, Robert Joos. The case was initially heard in McDonald County Circuit Court.
The court upheld Joos' conviction for operating a motor vehicle without a proper license.
In tossing the resisting arrest conviction, the court said:

To convict Defendant of resisting a lawful stop by fleeing, "the jury would be required to find that [Trooper Bearden] was making an investigatory stop of Defendant, Defendant knew he was making a stop, and that for the purpose of preventing the stop, resisted by fleeing from the officer." Brooks, 158 S.W.3d at 852 (citing MAI-CR 3d 329.61). In the present case, in order to convict Defendant of felony resisting arrest, the jury was instructed to find that Trooper Bearden was making an arrest of Defendant, Defendant knew he was making an arrest, and for the purpose of preventing the arrest, Defendant resisted by fleeing from the officer.
"The facts needed to determine whether an officer was making a stop versus the facts needed to determine if an officer was making an arrest are different." Id. In convicting Defendant of felony resisting arrest, the jury was not required to find that Trooper Bearden was making an investigatory stop. While there may have been sufficient evidence from which a jury could have made such a finding, the jury did not have the chance to consider whether Trooper Bearden was making a stop. Because the jury was not required to find all of the elements of the misdemeanor offense of resisting a lawful stop by fleeing, we decline to enter a conviction for that offense.

The following description of Joos' offense was included in the opinion:

On November 14, 2004, Highway Patrol Corporal Brad Bearden ("Trooper Bearden") was driving through Powell, Missouri, when he saw an unidentified male, who he later determined to be Defendant, sitting in a truck near a closed store. As Trooper Bearden turned around to investigate, Defendant drove off. Trooper Bearden followed Defendant, and activated his lights because he could not read Defendant's license plate, and Defendant was driving in the middle of the road. When Defendant did not pull over, Trooper Bearden pursued him with both his lights and siren activated. During the pursuit, Defendant was traveling anywhere from thirty-five to fifty miles per hour, swerving at times toward the left side of the road. At one point, Defendant forced an oncoming truck to pull to the side of the road. After being pursued for eleven minutes and several miles, Defendant reached a lane that went through the woods, stopping near a cluster of trailer homes and outbuildings, which was later determined to be his property.
As Defendant got out of the truck, Trooper Bearden drew his gun and ordered Defendant to come towards him. Defendant, who was very animated and agitated, began yelling at Trooper Bearden, telling him that he wanted witnesses so Trooper Bearden would not beat him up. Defendant also told Trooper Bearden that he did not have the authority to stop him or arrest him without a search warrant or court order.
After taking off his coat and emptying his pockets, Defendant approached Trooper Bearden, and was arrested without further incident. Defendant was then taken to jail, where Trooper Bearden discovered that Defendant did not have a driver's license and had two prior convictions for driving without a license.