Piepenburg v. Cutler

507 F. Supp. 1105, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17804
CourtDistrict Court, D. Utah
DecidedDecember 3, 1980
DocketCiv. No. C 80-0637
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 507 F. Supp. 1105 (Piepenburg v. Cutler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Piepenburg v. Cutler, 507 F. Supp. 1105, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17804 (D. Utah 1980).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM DECISION AND ORDER

JENKINS, District Judge.

James Piepenburg, petitioner herein, was convicted by a jury in the Third District Court, Salt Lake County, Utah on the 18th day of May, 1978, of three violations of 76-10-1204, Utah Code Annotated, a statute which prohibits, among other things, the exhibition of pornographic films.1

He appealed his conviction to the Utah State Supreme Court. The Utah Supreme Court unanimously affirmed his conviction on October 26, 1979.2 Petitioner made no effort to take the matter from the Utah Supreme Court to the United States Supreme Court by certiorari or appeal.

In late October of this year, 1980, when Piepenburg, by then a resident of Arizona, realized his extradition to Utah was imminent, he returned to Utah, submitted to the custody of the Salt Lake County Sheriff and concurrently therewith filed this action seeking a Writ of Habeas Corpus from this court and a stay of execution of the Judgment of the state court pending final determination of this matter. This court entered a stay of execution of the state court Judgment pending the determination of the issues raised by this petition.

Petitioner has exhausted his state remedies. Jurisdiction is proper under 28 U.S.C. § 2254.

The petition came on for hearing before the undersigned on the 10th day of November, 1980. The matter was briefed, argued and submitted on the record of the state court proceedings. No additional evidence was offered. The court thereafter in open court announced its decision to deny the issuance of the writ but reserved the right to restate and to amplify its reasons in a written opinion.

Thereafter, on stipulation of the parties entered on the record, the stay of execution of the state court Judgment heretofore entered was to remain in force and effect until the lodging of a written opinion and order in this matter and until further order of this court.

[1107]*1107Petitioner’s contentions are explicitly set forth in his memorandum annexed to his petition. Petitioner acknowledges therein that in his appeal to the Utah State Supreme Court, he “raised all issues raised” in his petition filed in this court.

Petitioner contends that his state court conviction is constitutionally infirm for the following reasons:

I. The process followed deprived him of a prompt determination in an adversary hearing of whether or not the films seized were obscene and thus deprived him of due process.
II. The statute of which he stands convicted is unconstitutionally vague.
III. The statute of which he stands convicted violates the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution.
IV. The state court judge’s sua sponte interruption of his attorney’s final argument to the jury deprived him of “due process”.

He asserts that as a result of such infirmities his custody is in violation of the Constitution of the United States.

Each of these assertions was addressed by the State Supreme Court and each was there found to be without merit. Each is indeed without merit.

On May 27, 1977, three films were seized from a public theater by Salt Lake City police officers. Petitioner makes no claim that the original seizure of the three films is in any way infirm. A warrant was properly issued by a neutral magistrate upon a specific and explicit affidavit and after a finding of probable cause. The seizure was pursuant to the warrant. The petitioner at the time of argument in this matter expressly acknowledged through counsel that the original seizure was lawful. No one here contends that the films are not obscene — pornographic—within the meaning of the state statute.

An officer pursuant to lawful warrant may seize or arrest an article and take it into his custody. He may do so for a wide variety of reasons, including the preservation and subsequent use thereof as evidence in the prosecution of a person charged with an offense in which the article plays some part. On many occasions, one may seize an offending article for purposes of forfeiture or destruction, an action relating to property itself, and may do so even when the actual owner of such an article is unknown. See, United States v. 1978 Cadillac El Dorado 2-Door Coup, 489 F.Supp. 532 (D.Utah 1980).

In this instance three films were seized. It is conceded the seizure was lawful. Thereafter petitioner was charged with the offense of which he stands convicted. The films seized were used as evidence in his prosecution.

The process which resulted in petitioner’s conviction was a standard process. A complaint was filed, a preliminary hearing was held by a committing magistrate, the defendant was bound over to state district court, an information was filed, and ultimately the matter was tried to a jury. There was one minor aberration. For reasons which the state district court did not state, the case was returned to the committing magistrate prior to trial for a second preliminary hearing wherein the defendant was again bound over to district court for trial. The trial took place. The jury convicted.

I. Petitioner contends that such a procedure is defective because somewhere in that process of prosecution he was entitled to a “prompt” adversary hearing as to whether or not the films seized were “obscene” and that he did not get such a prompt hearing. He asserts that Heller v. New York, 413 U.S. 483, 93 S.Ct. 2789, 37 L.Ed.2d 745 (1973) mandates such a procedure. The contours of Heller are somewhat blurry. The core holding of the case is that adversary hearings need not precede the seizure of an allegedly obscene film to preserve it as evidence in a criminal proceeding so long as the search warrant was properly issued and that a prompt adversary hearing follow the seizure. Language in the opinion pertinent to analysis of this holding is as follows:

[1108]*1108A copy of the film was temporarily detained in order to preserve it as evidence. There has been no showing that the seizure of a copy of the film precluded its continued exhibition. Nor, in this case, did temporary restraint in itself “become a form of censorship,” even making the doubtful assumption that no other copies of the film existed.... A judicial determination of obscenity, following a full adversary trial, occurred within 48 days of the temporary seizure. Petitioner made no pre-trial motions seeking return of the film, or challenging its seizure, nor did he request expedited judicial consideration of the obscenity issue. So it is entirely possible that a prompt judicial determination of the obscenity issue in an adversary proceeding could have been obtained if petitioner had desired. Id. at 490, 93 S.Ct. at 2793 (citations omitted) (emphasis added).
[Sjeizing films to destroy them or to block their distribution or exhibition is a very different matter from seizing a single copy of a film for the bona fide purpose of preserving it as evidence in a criminal proceeding, particularly where, as here, there is no showing or pretrial claim that the seizure of the copy prevented continuing exhibition of the film.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
507 F. Supp. 1105, 1980 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 17804, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/piepenburg-v-cutler-utd-1980.