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Jury Instructions

By: Derek Hawkins//September 18, 2019//

Jury Instructions

By: Derek Hawkins//September 18, 2019//

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WI Court of Appeals – District II

Case Name: State of Wisconsin v. Aaron M. Wigman

Case No.: 2018AP1311-CR

Officials: Neubauer, C.J., Reilly, P.J., and Gundrum, J.

Focus: Jury Instructions

A jury found Aaron M. Wigman guilty of two counts of making threats to law enforcement officers, contrary to WIS. STAT. § 940.203(2) (2017-18). He appeals from the judgment of conviction and from the order denying his motion for postconviction relief. Wigman argues that sufficient evidence supported modifying the instruction with the five Perkins factors: (1) No recipient of his Facebook posts reacted with violence, and neither police officer was directly targeted to receive any of the posts; (2) the rhetoric, if bellicose, was hypothetical and conditional and did not threaten imminent violence; (3) he did not communicate directly with the officers through his posts; in fact, the two officers were steered to access them only by others who had seen the posts; (4) he had not made previous similar statements about violent acts toward the officers; and (5) given his relatively compliant behavior at his arrest, the officers had no reason to believe he had a propensity to engage in violence.  We affirm.

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.

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