Register v. State

715 So. 2d 274, 1998 WL 161660
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedApril 9, 1998
Docket96-4440
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 715 So. 2d 274 (Register v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Register v. State, 715 So. 2d 274, 1998 WL 161660 (Fla. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

715 So.2d 274 (1998)

Johnny Edgar REGISTER, Appellant,
v.
STATE of Florida, Appellee.

No. 96-4440.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.

April 9, 1998.

*275 Steven L. Seliger, of Garcia & Seliger, Quincy, for Appellant.

Robert A. Butterworth, Attorney General, and J. Ray Poole, Assistant Attorney General, Tallahassee, for Appellee.

MICKLE, Judge.

Johnny Register appeals a conviction for unlawfully procuring for prostitution a person under the age of 18, a felony of the second degree pursuant to section 796.03, Florida Statutes (1995). The appellant contends that the trial court should have granted his motion for judgment of acquittal on this charge because, viewed in a light most favorable to the State, the evidence established, at most, that Register offered money to a 12-year-old girl to have sex with him. She refused his offer and immediately reported the incident to her mother, who notified authorities. Having determined that the mere offer of money to a person under 18 to have sex with the offeror is solicitation, rather than procurement for prostitution, we conclude that the State failed to make a prima facie case of the crime charged. Accordingly, we reverse Register's conviction of procurement for prostitution (Count One). We affirm his conviction and sentence for misdemeanor possession of marijuana (Count Two) pursuant to section 893.13, Florida Statutes (1995).

Section 796.03 states:
Procuring person under age 18 for prostitution.—A person who procures for prostitution, or causes to be prostituted, any person who is under the age of 18 commits a felony of the second degree, punishable as provided in [Chapter 775, Florida Statutes].

Section 796.07, Florida Statutes (1995), defines "prostitution":

Prohibiting prostitution, etc.; evidence; penalties; definitions.—
(1) As used in this section:
(a) "Prostitution" means the giving or receiving of the body for sexual activity for hire but excludes sexual activity between spouses.

The act of prostitution "involves a financial element." Gonzales v. State, 107 Fla. 121, 144 So. 311 (1932). Another subsection of this statute outlaws certain related activities:

(2) It is unlawful:
....
(f) To solicit, induce, entice, or procure another to commit prostitution, lewdness, or assignation.
....
(4) A person who violates any provision of this section commits:
(a) A misdemeanor of the second degree for a first violation, punishable as provided in [Chapter 775].

§ 796.07, Fla. Stat. (emphasis added). The pertinent statutes do not define either "procure" or "solicit." The appellant argued at trial and on appeal that "solicitation" and *276 "procurement" constitute different acts. According to the appellant's reasoning, the two terms are related only insofar as an initial act of solicitation, i.e., seeking "to obtain by persuasion, entreaty, or formal application," or approaching a person "with an offer of sexual services" according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language at 1229 (1973), might lead to an act of procurement, i.e., obtaining, acquiring, or bringing about a result such as "obtain[ing] (a woman) to serve as a prostitute" according to The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language at 1044 (1973). See Ford v. City of Caldwell, 79 Idaho 499, 321 P.2d 589, 593 (1958) ("`Procure' means to cause, acquire, gain, get, obtain, bring about, cause to be done; it connotes action. `Procurement' is the act of obtaining, attainment, acquisition, bringing about, effecting."). To show solicitation in the context of sexual activity:

[I]t is only necessary that the actor, with intent that another person commit a crime, have enticed, advised, incited, ordered, or otherwise encouraged that person to commit a crime. The crime solicited need not be committed.

Black's Law Dictionary at 1249 (5th ed.1979). That is, solicitation is the attempt to induce one to have sex. On the other hand, procurement contemplates the attaining, bringing about, or effecting of the result sought by the initial solicitation, such as obtaining someone as a prostitute for a third party. See id. at 1087.

The Supreme Court of Washington effectively described what constitutes "procurement" in State v. Carter, 89 Wash.2d 236, 570 P.2d 1218 (1977) (en banc). The Washington State statute provided for the imprisonment of "[e]very person who ... [s]hall give, offer, or promise any compensation, gratuity or reward, to procure any person for the purpose of placing such person for immoral purposes in any house of prostitution, or elsewhere...." Wash. Rev.Code § 9.79.060(3) (1973). A jury convicted Carter of the crime of pimping under that statute. At the trial, a female Seattle Police Department "decoy prostitute" testified that as she was "walking" a certain area, Carter and another man (Campbell) asked whether she had a "man" for security. The decoy took this to mean whether she had a pimp. After the other man left, Carter offered to furnish the decoy with security, a bail bondsman, a corner on which to work, and good customers in exchange for one-half of her earnings. During a subsequent encounter in a hotel lobby, the decoy told Carter and Campbell that she "was not playing games," whereupon the three individuals further discussed the proposed arrangement. Both men offered the plan that Carter originally had suggested, but Campbell was not present for all of the negotiations in the lobby. Carter and Campbell eventually accompanied the decoy to her hotel room, where the vice unit arrested both men. Carter, 570 P.2d at 1219-20. Carter and Campbell were tried jointly, and the jury acquitted the latter. On appeal, Carter argued, first, that the procurement statute was directed only at the third party who offers to reward the procurer, not at the procurer himself. Determining that "[t]he statute was broadly written to prohibit the acts of both the procurer and the person who rewards the procurer," the supreme court rejected this argument. Id. at 1220-21; State v. Basden, 31 Wash.2d 63, 196 P.2d 308 (1948). Second, Carter argued that the State had failed to prove "a complete crime" because no showing was made that Carter actually "procured" the decoy. The State, on the other hand, contended that procurement was shown where the offer of compensation was accompanied by Carter's intent to procure. The supreme court rejected both positions and said:

Strictly interpreting this subsection, more than an attempt was needed. There must have been some agreement to procure or be procured, i.e., some acceptance of the offer to provide compensation. Appellant's conduct here, as testified to by Myra Boyd [the decoy's pseudonym], did come within the purview of subsection (3). The crime was completed when Ms. Boyd agreed to the offer for the purpose of making the arrest.

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Bluebook (online)
715 So. 2d 274, 1998 WL 161660, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/register-v-state-fladistctapp-1998.