The Montana Supreme Court affirmed the conviction of a man who filmed Kalispell police at a traffic stop and was cited by the city for obstructing a peace officer.

In a unanimous opinion, the justices upheld a misdemeanor conviction for defendant Sean Doman, but they did not rule on a Constitutional challenge he raised, finding the First Amendment question came too late.

A lawyer who participated in the case said it’s important for Montanans to know they have the right to peacefully record the actions of law enforcement. But one justice said the case also shows law enforcement officers work in a professional manner in Montana.

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The order this week comes in the wake of violent actions by federal law enforcement against members of the public, including the fatal shooting in Minneapolis of Alex Pretti, a nurse who had been filming officers with his cell phone.

In July 2022 in Kalispell, Sean Doman stopped his bicycle to film a traffic stop, and when an officer called to help asked him to film from a different location, “a little bit a ways,” Doman asserted his First Amendment right, according to the order.

The officer agreed Doman had the right to record but said his actions were distracting law enforcement from the stop, the order said. It said Doman escalated, officers arrested him, and the city cited him for obstructing a peace officer.

A jury found Doman guilty, and he appealed to District Court, but the city of Kalispell argued the court should not address his free speech Constitutional arguments because he hadn’t made them in municipal court.

Doman argued there wasn’t enough evidence to prove he knowingly obstructed the officer’s ability to issue the driver a ticket, and because he had a state and federally protected Constitutional right to film, he did not have to obey the order to move away, according to the court documents.

The Supreme Court agreed Doman failed to make his Constitutional argument in a timely fashion, but it also said no one disputes that he has a fundamental right to free speech, including the officer at the scene.

However, because his Constitutional challenge came too late, and he didn’t convince the Supreme Court that a “manifest miscarriage of justice” would occur if the justices didn’t review it, the state ruled only on the ticket.

It said Doman became increasingly aggressive and argumentative at the scene, and the evidence showed Doman was aware “of a high probability” that his conduct would impede the officers.

“We conclude that a rational juror could determine that Doman’s activity interfered with the traffic stop and that his failure to cooperate with (Officer) Minaglia’s orders obstructed the performance of the officers’ duties,” the order said.

The municipal court jury had found the officer imposed an unreasonable restriction on Doman’s ability to film by sending him likely too far away to record audio.

However, the order said the jury also was instructed that “it is no defense to a prosecution” that a peace officer is acting in an illegal manner even if acting under official authority.

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The Supreme Court order affirmed Doman’s conviction, which had resulted in a $538 violation, but it didn’t address his Constitutional challenge.

The American Civil Liberties of Montana participated as a friend of the court in the case, and in an email, lawyer Alex Rate said it’s important for people to know they have the right to document officers on the job.

“The court did not actually reach the merits of the case, and Montanans should rest assured that our Constitution protects the right to peacefully and safely record law enforcement,” Rate said. “That right is more important today than it has ever been, where we see federal immigration officials behaving lawlessly in cities across the country.”

The justices made a unanimous decision in the case, but Justice Jim Shea wrote a concurring opinion that provided his observation about the work of law enforcement in Montana and the media.

Shea said since the case ended up being only about whether the misdemeanor could be supported, the court opinion “likely will not warrant much, if any, notice from either the public or the press.

“The pity in that is what will be lost is an accounting of the professionalism that Officer Minaglia exhibited in this encounter.”

Shea said the public is “constantly inundated with images of violent and confrontational encounters between law enforcement and citizens who are attempting to record and document their interactions with law enforcement.

“The encounter in this case stands in stark contrast to those images,” Shea said.

He said it’s easy to think that violent clashes are typical, but he’s reviewed “countless” cases of interactions between law enforcement and the public, and “at least in Montana,” the professional way Minaglia handled the situation is the norm, not the exception.

“It is unfortunate that the video of this encounter will likely go the way of the Lost Ark because it doesn’t make for good clickbait,” Shea wrote.

The video footage could not be obtained in time for this story. Doman’s lawyer could not be reached late Friday, and the City of Kalispell also could not be reached for comment.