The state’s highest court on Tuesday sided with a jury’s decision that a Kalispell man was guilty of obstructing a peace officer while he recorded a traffic stop in 2022.

In its Feb. 10 ruling, the Montana Supreme Court concluded that state prosecutors had presented enough evidence at trial to support a misdemeanor charge against Sean Doman. The court found that a reasonable juror could determine that Doman’s refusal to follow law enforcement orders interfered with the officers’ ability to perform their duties.  

Doman was riding his bicycle on June 17, 2022 when he saw a Kalispell Police officer conducting a traffic stop. He parked his bike and began filming the scene on his phone from a public sidewalk.  

The officer who made the traffic stop testified that he called in backup after Doman tried to talk to the motorist who had been pulled over. When Officer George Minaglia arrived, he asked Doman to step back. Doman initially refused, saying he had a First Amendment right to record the encounter, according to court documents.   

Minaglia agreed that Doman had the right to film but continued asking him to step back so he wouldn’t interfere. Doman responded that he needed to stay close enough to record audio and was already standing on a public sidewalk, according to court documents.  

When Doman said he would not move farther back, Minaglia knocked Doman’s phone out of his hand and told him he would be arrested for obstruction, according to court documents.  

Doman then allegedly swore at Minaglia and called him a tyrant before he began to back away. Minaglia arrested him shortly afterward. The officer testified that Doman was arrested for being uncooperative and failing to distance himself from the traffic stop, according to court documents.   

AT HIS March 8, 2023 trial in Kalispell Municipal Court, Doman argued he was lawfully exercising his constitutional right to record and was not obstructing the traffic stop. The jury found him guilty of obstructing a peace officer, and the Eleventh District Court affirmed the conviction.  

In his appeal, Doman argued that his conviction infringed on his free speech rights and was not supported by sufficient evidence. 

But the state determined because Doman stood right next to the vehicle, gestured to its occupants, ignored repeated orders from Minaglia, and acted combatively, he failed to show that the jury convicted him solely for exercising his rights, according to ruling.   

The Supreme Court rejected the "plain error” claims Doman raised, which refer to significant mistakes made in a lower court’s decision that warrant a correction. Doman claimed that a jury instruction prevented him from asserting that the officer’s order was unlawful. Because Doman did not object to the instruction during the trial, the court ruled it could not be used as a basis for appeal.  

The state Supreme Court also declined to consider Doman’s argument that the misdemeanor applies only when a defendant threatens or uses violence. The Court said he was essentially asking for a new interpretation of state law, which it would not adopt.    

“Although the alleged errors implicate Doman’s fundamental right to free speech, he has not convinced us that our failure to address them would result in a manifest miscarriage of justice, call into question the fairness of the proceedings, or compromise the integrity of the judicial system,” the ruling stated.  

Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at 758-4407 and [email protected].