People v. Pinkus

256 Cal. App. 2d 941
CourtAppellate Division of the Superior Court of California
DecidedOctober 26, 1967
DocketCrim. Nos. 7573, 7574
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 256 Cal. App. 2d 941 (People v. Pinkus) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Superior Court of California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. Pinkus, 256 Cal. App. 2d 941 (Cal. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

AISO, P. J.

Defendant William Pinkus was found guilty by a jury of violating Penal Code, section 311.21 on July 14, 1966, and on October 19, 1966, in the City of Los Angeles. Pinkus appeals from the respective judgments of conviction pronounced upon the guilty verdicts entered upon two counts. The counts, respectively, are: count I of the amended complaint in CR A 7573 (trial court No. 269648) which originally set forth a total of 13 counts, and renumbered count I of the amended complaint in CR A 7574 (trial court No. 270712, originally count II thereof and renumbered count I at time of trial) which originally set forth 3 separate counts. The two cases were consolidated for trial and appeal. This appeal concerns only the two counts enumerated above on which defendant Pinkus was convicted.

Count I of CR A 7573 involves an 8mm. silent film received into evidence as Exhibit 2, marked “J.” Renumbered count I of CR A 7574 involves the 8mm. silent films received into evidence as Exhibit 13 (consisting of 113 such films). The 8mm. film marked “ J ” and two films from the 113, constituting Exhibit 13 identified as “B-6” and “B-8,” were shown to the jury with accompanying stipulation that the two shown ‘‘ represent the worst, and that there are some that are milder; but certainly none are stronger ’ ’ than the two shown.

We have viewed the films shown the jury in course of reviewing the entire record as enjoined by higher courts. (Jacob eUis v. Ohio (1964) 378 U.S. 184, 188-189 [12 L.Ed.2d 793, 798-799, 84 S.Ct. 1676]; Zeitlin v. Arnebergh (1963) 59 Cal.2d 901, 909 [31 Cal.Rptr. 800, 383 P.2d 152, 10 A.L.R.3d 707].) Each of the three films viewed constitutes, in our opinion, “hard-core pornography.” Significantly, defendant’s counsel raised no issue in his brief as to these three films being obscene and he confirmed in oral argument that the omission was not inadvertent.

[944]*944Grounds assigned for reversal of the judgments of conviction are: (1) the evidence is the product of illegal searches and seizures, (2) obscenity was not established in that the prosecution introduced no evidence of obscenity other than the films exhibited to the jury, and (3) the requirements of scienter defined by Penal Code, section 311, subdivision (e)2 were not met.

Pacts relevant to these issues will be set forth as we consider each assignment seriatim.

Evidence Legally Obtained

There is no question as to any illegal search and seizure as to the film in CR A 7573 (Exhibit 2, marked “ J”). It was purchased by Officer Philip K. Roberts at the defendant’s “Books. Magazines. Film” shop3 (Rosslyn News Co.), 450 South Main Street, Los Angeles, on July 14, 1966, although defendant Pinkus was not there at the time.

The 113 films in CR A 7574 (Exhibit 13) were obtained by the police under the following circumstances on October 21, 1966: Officer Joseph B. Fingleton went to the defendant’s store with warrants for the arrest of defendant Pinkus and one Ronald Kamin, each for a violation of Penal Code, section 311.2. Kamin was tending the store at the time and was arrested. Defendant Pinkus was not there. A search of the store was made contemporaneously with Kamin’s arrest. The films making up Exhibit 13 were found and seized at that time. Thirty-three rolls of film [10 rolls of “B-6,” 10 rolls of “B-7,” 13 rolls of “B-8”] were found upstairs on a table in a “back-room like” area. Seventy-nine rolls of film [6 rolls of “B-6,” 2 rolls “B-8,” and other films of similar nature] were found on shelves open to public view underneath a glass counter.

The validity of the warrants of arrest has not been attacked either in the trial court or upon this appeal. Defense counsel urges only that since there was time to obtain a search warrant, the officers should have been armed with a search warrant in addition to the arrest warrants. He urges here that Flack v. Municipal Court (1967] 66 Cal.2d 981 [59 Cal. Rptr. 872, 429 P.2d 192], decided subsequent to the trial of [945]*945these cases here but pending appeal, has somehow rendered the seizure of Exhibit 13, contemporaneous with the arrest pursuant to a warrant of arrest, illegal. We do not understand the holding of Flack to be so broad. In Flack “neither search nor arrest warrants had previously been secured.” (Flack v. Municipal Court, supra, 66 Cal.2d 981, 984.) We do not feel that where officers make an arrest pursuant to a warrant issued for a violation of Penal Code, section 311.2, there should be any exception from the general rule that instrumentalities for the commission of the crime or proof of guilt may be seized incidental to the arrest. (United States v. Rabinowitz (1950) 339 U.S. 56, 60-61 [94 L.Ed. 653, 657-658, 70 S.Ct. 430]; Harris v. United States (1947) 331 U.S. 145, 151-153 [91 L.Ed. 1399, 1405-1406, 67 S.Ct. 1098]; People v. Winston (1956) 46 Cal.2d 151, 162 [293 P.2d 40]; and cf. Maryland Penitentiary v. Hayden (1967) 387 U.S. 294 [18 L.Ed.2d 782, 87 S.Ct. 1642] ; People v. Thayer (1965) 63 Cal.2d 635 [47 Cal.Rptr. 780, 480 P.2d 108] sanctioning seizure of mere evidence establishing elements of the crime.)

Furthermore, there were circumstances present here that the films might well have disappeared from the premises at 450 South Main Street if not seized immediately. A defense witness, John Adams, who had worked as a clerk at the Rosslyn News Co. at 450 South Main Street during July, August, September and October of 1966, testified that he would take the inventory for the store at 450 from another shop, the “Main Street News,” located at 516 South Main Street where the inventory or stock was kept. And when the Rosslyn News Co. at 450 South Main Street “was closed,” he (Adams) would take the inventory on hand at 450 South Main Street back to the store at 516 South Main Street. The arrest of Kamin surely would have been a sufficient tip-off to strip the store at 450 Main Street of the obscene inventory. The Flack case itself recognized an exception to the general rule there stated in “arrest situations involving a high probability that evidence may be lost, destroyed, or spirited away.” (Flack v. Municipal Court, supra, 66 Cal.2d 981, 991, fn. 10.)

We, therefore, hold that defendant’s claim, that Exhibits 2 and 13 Avere obtained by illegal search and seizure, lacks merit.

Evidence Adequately Supports Finding op Obscenity

The constitutional and statutory criteria and other pertinent considerations in adjudicating a silent motion picture

[946]*946obscene are set forth in Landau v. Fording (1966) 245 Cal.App.2d 820 [54 Cal.Rptr. 177], cert. granted, judgment affirmed, 388 U.S. 456 [18 L.Ed.2d 1317, 87 S.Ct. 2109].

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413 U.S. 15 (Supreme Court, 1973)

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256 Cal. App. 2d 941, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-pinkus-calappdeptsuper-1967.