State v. Flynn

In State v. Flynn, 14 Conn. App. 10, 27, 539 A.2d 1005, cert denied, 488 U.S. 891, 109 S. Ct. 226, 102 L. Ed. 2d 217 (1988), the defendant was convicted of, inter alia, assault on a police officer, which requires intentional conduct, and reckless endangerment, which requires reckless conduct. Id., 12-13. The convictions resulted from an incident where the defendant, in a crowded bar, threw a beer bottle at several police officers. Id. On appeal, the defendant claimed that the verdict was inconsistent, as he could not have acted intentionally and recklessly with regard to the same factual circumstances. Id., 26. The Court concluded that the verdict was not inconsistent because the mental states went to different results. Accordingly, the jury could have found that, by throwing the bottle at the police officers, the defendant acted intentionally with the conscious objective to prevent the officers from performing their duty, while at the same time, he acted recklessly with respect to the other patrons in the bar. Id., 27.