Hall v. State

1971 OK CR 401, 489 P.2d 1094
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedOctober 13, 1971
DocketNo. A-15344
StatusPublished

This text of 1971 OK CR 401 (Hall v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hall v. State, 1971 OK CR 401, 489 P.2d 1094 (Okla. Ct. App. 1971).

Opinion

BRETT, Judge:

This is an appeal from the District Court of Tulsa County, Oklahoma, case number 23,322, on a charge of Indecent Exposure, in which plaintiff in error, Marvin Ralph Hall, hereafter referred to as defendant, was found guilty by the Court, without a jury, and was sentenced to serve one year in the State Penitentiary.

[1095]*1095Defendant’s charge was laid under the provisions of Title 21, O.S.Supp.1967, § 1021, which provides:

“Every person who wilfully either:
(1) lewdly exposes his person, or private parts thereof, in any public place, or in any place where there are present other persons to he offended or annoyed thereby; or, * * *” (Emphasis added.)

The State offered the testimony of only one witness to sustain this conviction. This witness had been a Registered Nurse for ten years, and at this time was employed at St. Johns Hospital in Tulsa. She testified that while she was delivering her four year old daughter to the nursery, as they passed by the parking lot, her daughter called the man’s actions to her attention; and that she observed the defendant exposing himself. She related that she observed him three times; the first time she was walking toward the nursery, about sixty (60) feet from him; the second time she and her daughter were passing through the gate, when she looked back again. After she delivered her daughter to the nursery, she went to the second floor of the “parkaid” building, next to the hospital, and observed him the third-time.

The witness testified that the time was about twenty minutes to seven o’clock (6:40 A.M. Daylight Savings Time) when she observed him moving his penis “in a circular motion and up and down.” When she observed him the second time, he was doing the same, but the third time he was doing nothing. She described how he was dressed, “He was wearing a light, almost white, short-sleeved shirt and gray trousers.” She stated also that the defendant was behind his truck in the vicinity of the trash-rack in the parking lot.

With reference to the condition of the light and time of day, the complaining witness testified thusly: “It was daylight; approximately twenty minutes to seven.” It is interesting to observe however, that when the defense offered the testimony of one of defendant’s competitive trash-haulers, who related that during August, 1967, at six o’clock A.M., Daylight Savings Time, it was dark and that it was necessary to use his truck lights, the prosecutor objected and asserted that defense counsel was “ * * * trying to establish this man as an expert meteorologist.” Nonetheless the trial court wisely permitted the witness to testify.

Defendant testified in his own behalf and introduced the testimony of two other witnesses. Mr. Lee Paris testified concerning his own arrival in the vicinity of the parking lot about seven fifteen A.M. that morning, when he saw the defendant loading his trash truck. He also stated, that sometimes other people drive in and unload trash in the trash container which often over-loads it.

Mr. John C. Gotcher, a competitor in the trash hauling business, testified concerning how the trash business operates, and to the extent of daylight about that time of day when this incident allegedly occurred. This witness finally cleared the record to properly reflect, that during the months of Daylight Savings Time he actually commences his work an hour earlier each day, than he does during Standard time, because the • clock is moved forward one hour.

When defendant testified, he recalled that he did urinate in the truck-hopper that morning, because it left no water residue on the parking lot. He testified further that he did not see the complaining witness in or near the parking lot that morning, with reference to how he was dressed, he related that he always wears “bib-overalls” and a tee-shirt. He stated also that he urinated in the truck-hopper that morning because at that time of the morning there was no business place open where a person could go to relieve himself.

On direct examination, defendant admitted that on two prior occasions he had been convicted for the offense of indecent exposure. The first was October 3, 1951, when he was given a five-year suspended sentence; and the second such conviction was on January 4, 1956. He also admitted [1096]*1096that in 1946, when he was sixteen years of age, he served two years in the reformatory at Granite for larceny. However, he related further that since the second conviction for exposure, twelve years earlier, he has received treatment by a psychiatrist, and has participated in group psychiatric therapy, and as a result he no longer has the compulsion to expose himself. He related that he owns and operates the trash hauling business, and also owns a service station and garage. He is divorced from his first wife, but assists in providing support for the two daughters by that marriage, one of whom was sixteen and the other twenty years old, who attends college.

Defendant argues three propositions in his brief. The first contends the evidence is insufficient to sustain the conviction; secondly, that the trial court failed to resolve reasonable doubt in favor of the defendant; and third, that there was no showing of criminal intent to commit the crime charged.

The record in this trial leaves certain elements in doubt. The prosecutrix testified that it was daylight, about twenty minutes to seven. The defense witnesses testified that it was not clear daylight at that time of the morning. The Court takes judicial notice of the “Solar Ephemeris” and the following: That Daylight Savings Time was in effect on that date, and the clocks were turned forward one hour; and, that the Solar Ephemeris reflects, for the general longitude and latitude readings for the vicinity of Tulsa, Oklahoma, that the sun rise occurred at 6:36 A.M., Daylight Savings Time (5:36 A.M. Standard Time). The incident allegedly occurred about four minutes after sun-rise. Consequently, the daylight condition was “early dawn,” and the prosecuting witness probably could have seen a man sixty feet away, but certainly not as clearly as she could have seen him thirty minutes later.

With reference to defendant’s propositions, the evidence does appear to be insufficient to clearly prove the offense charged; and as we review the record, some reasonable doubt exists in the testimony, which we believe would ordinarily be resolved in defendant’s favor. There is no doubt in this writer’s mind, except for defendant’s previous convictions, he probably would not have been found guilty on this charge. This probability appears evident because the prosecutrix’s testimony standing alone, in view of all the facts presented, is not sufficient to sustain the allegation of “wilful exposure.” The witness would not, or did not, testify that the man was doing anything other than urinating; instead she persisted in stating that “he was moving his penis in a circular motion and up and down.” At the preliminary examination, the witness stated in answer to the question that she saw no urine; but under the circumstances, it is doubtful that she could have seen such. If the defendant was the man she saw, as she identified him at the trial, and in the police line-up, his explanation does not appear to be unreasonable or illogical. The witness specifically testified that the man made no effort to attract her attention; and that the only reason she first observed him was when her daughter called his actions to her attention.

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Related

Ritter v. State
1947 OK CR 81 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1947)
Simpson v. City of Tulsa
1939 OK CR 103 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1939)

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Bluebook (online)
1971 OK CR 401, 489 P.2d 1094, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hall-v-state-oklacrimapp-1971.