City of Portland v. DePaolo

567 A.2d 78, 1989 Me. LEXIS 316
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedDecember 8, 1989
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 567 A.2d 78 (City of Portland v. DePaolo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Portland v. DePaolo, 567 A.2d 78, 1989 Me. LEXIS 316 (Me. 1989).

Opinion

ROBERTS, Justice.

Vincenzo DePaolo and Charles Graten appeal from judgments of the Superior Court (Cumberland County, Perkins, J.), entered on a jury verdict in favor of the City of Portland on three civil violations pursuant to M.D.C.Civ.R. 80H.1 DePaolo, the owner of a Portland store, The Treasure Chest, and Graten, a clerk in the store, were each charged with four violations of the Obscenity Ordinance, Portland City Code, art. IV, §§ 17-61 to 17-63 (1982),2 after Graten sold several magazines to undercover Portland police officers.

This is the third time these cases have appeared before us. In City of Portland v. Jacobsky, 496 A.2d 646 (Me.1985), we determined that the Obscenity Ordinance was properly enacted, that proceedings brought pursuant to the Ordinance were civil in nature, and that the Ordinance was constitutional under both state and federal constitutions. In City of Portland v. DePaolo, 531 A.2d 669 (Me.1987), we determined that DePaolo and Graten were enti-tied to a jury trial. DePaolo and Graten now argue that the evidence was insufficient to sustain a verdict and that the Superior Court erred in selecting the jury. We affirm the judgments.

I. PROCEDURE

At a pretrial conference, there was extensive discussion concerning the composition of the jury. The City argued that since the jury has to apply community standards,3 knowledge of those standards was a prerequisite for service. Jurors "should ideally be residents of ... Portland and be able to state that they have an idea of what Portland’s community standards are.” Defense counsel argued that potential jurors should be excluded if they had pretrial knowledge of Portland’s community standards and that the jury should decide community standards based on evidence presented to them rather than by relying on their own knowledge. During voir dire the court asked whether any juror lacked sufficient knowledge or familiarity with the contemporary community standards of the City of Portland to be able to apply the test of obscenity under the ordinance. The record reflects that no potential jurors responded to the question.

At trial, two police officers testified they purchased from Graten five magazines which were introduced as exhibits. The City also introduced a copy of the Ordinance and the defendants’ responses to the City’s requests for admissions. At the close of the City’s case, defense counsel moved for a directed verdict or dismissal on the ground that the City had failed to produce any evidence of contemporary community standards. After the court denied de[80]*80fense counsel’s motion the defense rested without presenting evidence.

In its instructions to the jury, the court stated, “[Y]ou have the ability to utilize your own sense of views of the hypothetical average person in the community.” Defense counsel objected to this language, arguing, “I don’t think that’s a correct statement of the law. We are talking about actual community standard and actual person, and not a hypothetical person.” The court denied defense counsel’s request for reinstruction but told the jury, if they were not persuaded that the exhibits violated contemporary community standards as of January 1983, then the evidence was insufficient and City had not proved its case. The jury returned a special verdict establishing three of four violations in each citation4 and the court assessed fines against each defendant totalling $450. De-Paolo and Graten filed timely appeals following the denial of their motions for new trial or judgment notwithstanding the verdict.

II. SUFFICIENCY OF THE EVIDENCE

DePaolo and Graten argue that the Superior Court was incorrect in denying their motions for directed verdict and judgment notwithstanding the verdict. They do not contend that a jury could not rationally conclude that the magazines were obscene. Indeed, the evidence would be sufficient even under a heightened standard of appellate review potentially required by the first amendment. See Bose v. Consumer Union of the United States, Inc., 466 U.S. 485, 104 S.Ct. 1949, 80 L.Ed.2d 502 (1984). These defendants contend that evidence of contemporary community standards was not presented at all.

In City of Portland v. Jacobsky, 496 A.2d 646, 649 (Me.1985), we noted the continued vitality of the three-part test set forth in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 24, 93 S.Ct. 2607, 2614-2615, 37 L.Ed.2d 419 (1973), to delineate the scope of obscene expression not protected by the constitutional safeguards of the First Amendment. In refusing to extend state constitutional protection to obscene expression that under the Miller test does not enjoy federal constitutional protection, we adopted the meaning of obscenity as defined by federal decision, Jacobsky, 496 A.2d at 649.

According to the United States Supreme Court, a plaintiff need not introduce evidence of contemporary community standards in a criminal jury trial involving obscenity. In Hamling v. United States, 418 U.S. 87, 94 S.Ct. 2887, 41 L.Ed.2d 590 (1974), (now Chief) Justice Rehnquist stated that:

[T]he [Miller] test was stated in terms of the understanding of “the average person, applying contemporary community standards.” _When this approach is coupled with the reaffirmation in Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton, 413 U.S., [49] at 56 [93 S.Ct. 2628, 2634, 37 L.Ed.2d 446 (1973) ], ... of the rule that the prosecution need not as a matter of constitutional law produce “expert” witnesses to testify as to the obscenity of the materials, the import of the quoted language from Miller becomes clear. A juror is entitled to draw on his own knowledge of the views of the average person in the community or vicinage from which he comes for making the required determination, just as he is entitled to draw on his own knowledge of the propensities of a “reasonable” person in other areas of the law.

Hamling, 418 U.S. at 104-05, 94 S.Ct. at 2900-01. Subsequent state and federal cases have applied this standard in non-jury civil and criminal obscenity proceedings. DePaolo and Graten do not cite and we have not found any civil jury trial case involving obscenity. Although the case at bar is neither a jury nor non-jury criminal trial nor a non-jury civil proceeding, those types of cases support our conclusion that there is no requirement that a plaintiff introduce evidence of contemporary com[81]*81munity standards in a civil jury trial involving obscenity.

In City of Miami v. Florida Literary Distributing Corp., 486 So.2d 569 (Fla.1986), cert. den. 479 U.S. 872, 107 S.Ct. 248, 93 L.Ed.2d 172 (1986), a non-jury civil obscenity proceeding for injunctive relief, the Supreme Court of Florida stated that:

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567 A.2d 78, 1989 Me. LEXIS 316, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-portland-v-depaolo-me-1989.