Ridgeway v. State

1976 OK CR 172, 553 P.2d 511
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedAugust 2, 1976
DocketM-76-186
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1976 OK CR 172 (Ridgeway 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
Ridgeway v. State, 1976 OK CR 172, 553 P.2d 511 (Okla. Ct. App. 1976).

Opinion

OPINION

BLISS, Judge:

Appellant, Ella Lou Ridgeway, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged, tried and convicted in the District Court, Tulsa County, Case No. CRM-75-1003, for the offense of Outraging the Public Decency, in violation of 21 O.S. 1971, § 22. Her punishment was fixed at a fine of Five Hundred Dollars ($500.00), and from said judgment and sentence a timely appeal has been perfected to this Court.

The State called only one witness, Buddy Warien, Deputy Sheriff of Tulsa County. He testified that on the night of September 13, 1975, he went to the Ore House Club, located in Tulsa County, but not in the Tulsa City limits, to observe whether the club allowed minor girls to dance, whether there was nude dancing or if mixed alcoholic drinks were being served. He arrived at the club at 11:30 P.M.

He testified he observed the defendant, who he identified in court, perform her dance routine on two separate occasions. He stated that in both performances the defendant appeared on the stage wearing a full length negligee, stripped to a g-string and a see-through brassiere and then became completely nude. Each dance routine lasted approximately ten minutes and was performed to music. In the last four minutes of her routine, when she was nude, the Deputy stated that she danced in a way designed to arouse the audience, although he himself was not aroused. When she danced the first time the Deputy was seated five feet from the stage; however, during her second performance he was seated approximately a foot and a half from the stage. It was during the second performance, as related by the Deputy, that he could see the labia of her private parts as she squatted during part of her performance.

The Deputy further testified that he was in the club for a period of two hours and that between the time of 11:30 P.M. and 12:30 A.M., the doors of the club were not locked, but thereafter they were. The Deputy also stated that at the time of the defendant’s arrest, which was approximately 1:30 A.M., she was fully clothed and was not performing.

John Street testified for the defendant stating that he was a criminal defense attorney and that he was defense counsel for cases docketed on the City of Tulsa criminal docket wherein the charges were for Outraging Public Decency. He testified that based upon his personal knowledge, dancers in the beer bars in the City of Tulsa were dancing in the nude.

At the conclusion of the testimony of Street, both the State and the defendant rested.

. In his first assignment of error the defendant raises the issue of whether expert evidence of contemporary community standards must be produced by the State where the alleged obscene conduct of a nude performer in a private establishment is a basis for a charge of Outraging Public Decency.

The defendant asserts that the law of this jurisdiction requires expert testimony *513 or other evidence of obscenity where the alleged obscene materials themselves are not placed into evidence. As authority he cites Ramirez v. State, Okl.Cr., 430 P.2d 826 (1967), and McCrary v. State, Okl.Cr., 533 P.2d 629 (1974). This assertion is not warranted from this authority cited and is clearly erroneous. The McCrary case expressly overruled the Ramirez holding concerning the necessity of ancillary evidence and held, in regard to books, magazines, pictures, and photographs, that although the prosecution may present expert testimony in an obscenity case, it is not a mandatory prerequisite to establishing a prima facie case under an obscenity statute. In Kaplan v. Calif., 413 U.S. 115, 93 S.Ct. 2680, 37 L.Ed.2d 492 (1973), the Supreme Court, citing Paris Adult Theater I v. Slaton, 413 U.S. 49, 93 S.Ct. 2628, 37 L.Ed.2d 446 (1973), held that there is no constitutional need for expert testimony on behalf of the prosecution or for any other ancillary evidence of obscenity once the allegedly obscene material themselves are placed in evidence.

In the case at bar we are not dealing with materials that may be physically placed into evidence, but with a nude performance which was described By a credible witness. In Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville, 422 U.S. 205, 95 S.Ct. 2268, 45 L.Ed.2d 125 (1975) the Supreme Court stated that all nudity cannot be deemed obscene. But here we have more involved than just nudity, we have the conduct of a nude performer which is alleged to be obscene. Therefore, the performance of the defendant, charged as Outraging Public Decency, falls within the form of conduct which is included within the category of offenses required to be tried on the basis of obscenity standards. Dominguez v. City of Tulsa, Okl.Cr., 539 P.2d 758 (1975).

The standards to determine what is or what is not obscene are those set out by the Supreme Court in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 93 S.Ct. 2607, 37 L.Ed.2d 419 (1973). These standards were presented to the jury in Instruction No. Three which reads as follows:

“If you find that: (1) The act of the defendant depicted or described sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and (2) that the average person in applying contemporary community standards would find the dance, taken as a whole, appealed to one’s prurient interest and (3) the act or conduct of the defendant taken as a whole, lacked literary, political, artistic or scientific value, then you shall find the defendant guilty.
The term ‘patently’ means clearly and obviously.
In applying contemporary community standards the test is not what your personal moral standards are, or whether you would find the act or conduct of the defendant offensive. The act or conduct’s impact on an average reasonable person must be determined, not the impact on a particularly susceptible or sensitive person, or indeed, a totally insensitive one.
The term ‘prurient’ means: (a) impure in thought and desire, (b) having lustful desire or cravings, (c) longing, desirous.”

The defendant argues that because there was no visual evidence of the defendant’s conduct and that supposedly the average juror has no knowledge of the contemporary community standards which govern such a live performance, the jury’s decision of the defendant’s guilt based only upon the testimony of the arresting officer would be the product of speculation. Thus, the defendant contends that expert testimony is necessary to inform the jury of what the contemporary standards are in relation to the alleged obscene conduct. We disagree. Based upon the testimony of the Deputy and the instruction that was given, especially the application of the community standard, we are of the opinion that expert testimony was not required or needed, and that in a case like this the jury is qualified to determine the contemporary community *514

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Related

State v. Walters
440 So. 2d 115 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1983)
Profit v. City of Tulsa
1978 OK CR 9 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1978)
State v. Walker
1977 OK CR 231 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1977)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1976 OK CR 172, 553 P.2d 511, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ridgeway-v-state-oklacrimapp-1976.