People v. Batchelor

800 P.2d 599, 14 Brief Times Rptr. 1525, 1990 Colo. LEXIS 757, 1990 WL 174923
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedNovember 13, 1990
Docket89SA31
StatusPublished
Cited by45 cases

This text of 800 P.2d 599 (People v. Batchelor) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Batchelor, 800 P.2d 599, 14 Brief Times Rptr. 1525, 1990 Colo. LEXIS 757, 1990 WL 174923 (Colo. 1990).

Opinions

Justice MULLARKEY

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

In July 1987, nine-year-old K.B. stayed overnight at the home of her father, the defendant David Batchelor. While K.B. was sleeping, Batchelor took several “instant” snapshots of K.B., nude from the waist down. The photographs were discovered in August, 1987, by Rosemary Luth, Batchelor’s then-fiancee with whom he lived, and Jamie Lyons, K.B.’s mother and Batchelor’s former wife. Luth and Lyons discovered the photographs of K.B. wrapped in cloth inside a small box in a locked closet, located downstairs in Batche-lor’s residence. When questioned about the origin of the photos, Batchelor told the police:

I just took the pictures. I don’t know why. I just did. She was asleep, and I got the camera, pulled her panties down and took a picture, changed her position and took more photos.

According to the police report, Batchelor stated that he “had never touched his daughter sexually” and his daughter agreed. Batchelor was charged and convicted of one count of sexual exploitation of a child under section 18 — 6—403(3)(b), 8B C.R.S. (1986), on the theory that his photographs of K.B. depicted “erotic nudity” as defined in section 18 — 6—403(2)(d), 8B C.R.S. (1986).1 He was sentenced to 60 days’ in-[601]*601careeration in county jail, together with four years’ probation and a $5,000 fine. Batchelor appealed to this court, challenging the constitutionality of section 18-6-403(3)(b), and contending that there was not sufficient evidence to establish his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt with regard to the required mental state under the statute. We affirm the conviction.

I.

Batchelor argues that section 18-6-403(3)(b) is overbroad because it would criminalize constitutionally protected photographs, e.g., pictures which parents take of their young children in a wading pool or on a beach and the prototypical photographs of nude babies on a bearskin rug. Batche-lor contends that section 18-6-403(3)(b), when used to prosecute for making materials depicting erotic nudity as defined by section 18-6-403(2)(d), is unconstitutionally overbroad, both on its face2 and as applied to Batchelor in this case.

Statutes are not unconstitutional due to facial overbreadth unless the over-breadth is “not only real, but substantial as well, judged in relation to the statute’s plainly legitimate sweep.” Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. 601, 615, 93 S.Ct. 2908, 2917, 37 L.Ed.2d 830 (1973). See also Ferber, 458 U.S. at 772, 102 S.Ct. at 3363. Depictions of child nudity, without more, are constitutionally protected expression. Ferber, 458 U.S. at 765 n. 18, 102 S.Ct. at 3359 n. 18 (citing Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville, 422 U.S. 205, 213, 95 S.Ct. 2268, 2274, 45 L.Ed.2d 125 (1975)). To defeat a challenge of substantial overbreadth,

the conduct to be prohibited must be adequately defined by the applicable state law, as written or authoritatively construed.... The category of “sexual conduct” proscribed must ... be suitably limited and described.

Id., 458 U.S. at 764, 102 S.Ct. at 3358. Thus, statutes prohibiting the production [602]*602or distribution of child pornography must sufficiently narrow the scope of their prohibitions to avoid “criminaliz[ing] an intolerable range of constitutionally protected conduct.” Osborne v. Ohio, — U.S. -, -, 110 S.Ct. 1691, 1697, 109 L.Ed.2d 98 (1990). We find that section 18-6-403(3)(b) is not substantially overbroad.

Section 18-6-403(2)(d) includes “erotic nudity” as explicit sexual conduct. The statute defines erotic nudity as follows:

“Erotic nudity” means the display of the human male or female genitals or pubic area, the undeveloped or developing genitals or pubic area of the human male or female child, the human female breasts, or the undeveloped or developing breast area of the human female child, for the purpose of real or simulated overt sexual gratification or stimulation of one or more of the persons involved.

§ 18-6-403(2)(d), 8B C.R.S. (1986). Under the tests articulated in Ferber and Osborne, the mere “display” of a child’s undeveloped, developing or developed genitals, pubic area, or female breasts, without more, constitutes protected expression. Limiting the prohibition of such “displays” to material made “for the purpose of overt sexual gratification or stimulation of one or more of the persons involved,” however, simultaneously targets child pornography, which is not protected speech, see, e.g., Ferber, 458 U.S. at 764, 102 S.Ct. at 3358, and reduces the possibility that the statute will be used to prohibit protected speech. So limited, the statute does not reach constitutionally protected materials depicting nude children for family, educational, medical, artistic or other legitimate purposes. Moreover, to the extent such constitutionally protected works may come within the reach of the statute, “we seriously doubt ... that these arguably impermissible applications of the statute [will] amount to more than a tiny fraction of the materials within the statute’s reach.” Ferber, 458 U.S. at 773, 102 S.Ct. at 3363.3

Batchelor also argues that an element of scienter is essential to the “erotic nudity” section of the statute to distinguish between materials protected by the First Amendment and the child pornography the statute seeks to combat. Batchelor is correct in arguing that an element of scienter is required for section 18-6-403(3)(b) to be constitutional. See Ferber, 458 U.S. at 747, 102 S.Ct. at 3348. Batchelor is incorrect, however, in arguing that section 18-6-403(3)(b) does not contain an element of scienter. The statutory elements of the crime are as follows:

A person commits sexual exploitation of a child if, for any purpose, he knowingly ... makes ... any photograph ... which depicts a child being used for ... the display of the human ... female genitals or pubic area [or] the undeveloped or developing genitals or pubic area of the human female child, ... for the purpose of real or simulated overt sexual gratification or stimulation of one or more of the persons involved.

§§ 18-6-403(2)(d), (2)(e), (2)(j), (S)(b), 8B C.R.S. (1986) (emphasis added). “Knowingly” is the degree of culpability required to violate section 18-6-403(3)(b) and the scien-ter requirement laid down in Ferber therefore is satisfied.4 In addition the statute requires that the conduct be done for the purpose of sexual gratification. Under [603]*603these circumstances, the statute is not substantially overbroad.

Section 18-6-403(3)(b) also is not overbroad as applied to Batchelor in this case. The photographs Batchelor took were not taken for family, educational, artistic or any other legitimate purpose. The trial court specifically found that the photographs were taken for no reason other than Batchelor’s sexual gratification. The photographs in this case therefore constitute child pornography. Child pornography is not protected speech. Section 18-6-403(3)(b) therefore is not overbroad as applied to Batchelor.

II.

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Bluebook (online)
800 P.2d 599, 14 Brief Times Rptr. 1525, 1990 Colo. LEXIS 757, 1990 WL 174923, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-batchelor-colo-1990.