State Ex Rel. Curtis v. Crow

580 S.W.2d 753, 1979 Mo. LEXIS 356
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedMay 17, 1979
Docket60503
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 580 S.W.2d 753 (State Ex Rel. Curtis v. Crow) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Curtis v. Crow, 580 S.W.2d 753, 1979 Mo. LEXIS 356 (Mo. 1979).

Opinions

FINCH, Senior Judge.

This action in prohibition arises out of discovery proceedings by Springfield Newspapers, Inc., in a libel action instituted against it by the relator herein. Relator seeks to prohibit respondent judge from enforcing a portion of an order that the prosecuting attorney of Greene County produce his files concerning two earlier cases involving relator. We now make permanent the provisional rule in prohibition previously entered.

Relator’s petition in his libel suit is stated in eleven counts. Each count relates to a separate statement appearing in the newspaper concerning plaintiff’s arrest on suspicion of child abuse. The allegedly libelous statements recited that relator had inflicted venereal disease on his 3-year-old son by reason of buggery. Plaintiff alleged each statement to be libelous per se and claimed numerous items of actual damages. These include mental anguish, suffering and distress, inability to gain work on occasions, inability to gain an advancement in employment, loss of esteem, society and the benefit of personal association from trust, and various other injuries. For purposes of this action in prohibition, the most significant allegation of damage is impairment of relator’s reputation and standing in the community. The newspaper’s answer to the petition admitted each statement but denied all allegations that such statements were libelous or that they caused the injuries alleged.

On November 9,1977, defendant newspaper served relator with a notice to take depositions and a carbon copy of a subpoena duces tecum addressed to James M. Kelly, the prosecuting attorney for Greene County. The subpoena ordered Mr. Kelly to produce at this deposition certain records and documents, allegedly kept in his official capacity as prosecutor, which relate to two separate incidents in the relator’s past. The subpoena first directed Mr. Kelly to produce “[a]ll notes, pleadings, trial preparation materials, records of interviews, letters, correspondence, and all other writings and/or tape recordings or transcripts thereof now in [his] possession, whether originally prepared by [him] or [his] staff or forwarded to [him] by others, pertaining to the case of State of Missouri v. Phillip Anthony Curtis * * *.” a 1975 case. This case was a prosecution for attempted buggery which was dismissed by the Magistrate Court of Greene County after a preliminary hearing. It was this incident which allegedly was incorrectly reported in the newspaper’s articles. The subpoena also commanded Mr. Kelly to bring “all records, notes, memoranda, written documents of whatever nature, whether originally compiled by [him] or [his] staff, or that of [his] predecessor, or whether forwarded to [his] predecessor in office by other law enforcement personnel, concerning the investigation, arrest, and prosecution of Phillip Anthony Curtis for the possession, use or sale or attempted sale of prescribed or scheduled narcotics or drugs in any form whatever.”

Upon receipt of the notice to take depositions and a copy of the subpoena duces tecum, relator’s counsel filed in the circuit court a motion for protective order and a motion to quash the subpoena duces tecum. Respondent denied that motion. Thereafter, Mr. Kelly appeared for the taking of his deposition but refused to produce the documents specified in the subpoena duces te-cum. He explained that in his opinion the [755]*755records of the prosecution for attempted buggery were, or might to considered to be, “closed records” under the provisions of § 610.1001 and that, according to the records of the circuit clerk, an order to expunge pursuant to § 195.2902 had been entered in the case involving narcotics or drugs. He stated that he would not produce his own records as to these cases unless ordered to do so.

Subsequently, the newspaper filed a motion for enforcement of discovery in the libel case. The respondent sustained that motion, ordering Mr. Kelly to appear for deposition and under pain of contempt to bring with him for inspection, copying and use in the deposition all material listed in the subpoena duces tecum.

Relator filed a petition for prohibition in the Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District. That petition was denied and he then filed a petition in this court seeking to prohibit respondent from enforcing that part of the order which directs relator to produce for inspection, copying and use all documentary material contained in his file in the case involving a controlled substance.3

The petition for prohibition alleges that after Curtis served a successful term of probation on the charge of attempted possession of a controlled substance, an order of the court was obtained which expunged all official records of that conviction in accordance with § 195.290. Respondent’s answer alleged lack of knowledge concerning probation and an order of expungement and on that basis denied those allegations. In order to resolve the disputed issue this court directed the Circuit Court of Greene County to conduct a hearing concerning whether an order to expunge was entered and to make findings thereon, certifying same to this court.

The findings of fact made by the Circuit Court of Greene County have been received. They disclose that on April 19, 1972, Curtis was sentenced to jail by the Magistrate Court of Greene County on a charge of attempted possession of a controlled substance but that sentence was suspended for a year and Curtis was placed on probation. The court further found that on April 12, 1973, Curtis appeared by his attorney and moved that he be discharged from probation. That motion was granted. The court then sustained an additional motion to expunge the records relating to the case, the order stating that the records were ordered expunged and that the Sheriff’s office should be notified to expunge all records pertaining to the case. Certified copies of the record made on April 19, 1972, and on April 12, 1973, are attached to the court’s findings.

Respondent argues that the April 12,1973 order to expunge is void on its face because it does not recite (1) that relator was under 21 at the time of the offense; (2) that a hearing was held on the motion to expunge; (3) that the court made reference to the [756]*756controlled dangerous substances registry; (4) that relator was not guilty of other offenses during the period of probation; and (5) that relator was not guilty of repeated violations of the conditions of his probation. All of these, says respondent, are jurisdictional facts, required by § 195.-290, which must be recited in the order to expunge. Cited in support of this position is Green v. St. Louis County, 327 S.W.2d 291 (Mo.1959). It involved a collateral attack on an earlier proceeding in the County Court of St. Louis County wherein it was sought to establish a county road. The court found that the County Court record in said case did not show that the required statutory notice was given to landowners over whose property the road was to run. Such notice was held to be jurisdictional and its absence caused the judgment in the County Court proceeding to be null and void.

In the case against relator the Magistrate Court record clearly shows that the court had jurisdiction of the subject matter and of the person. The prosecuting attorney had filed an information charging relator with commission of a misdemeanor and relator and his attorney had appeared and the court entered a judgment which included probation.

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State Ex Rel. Curtis v. Crow
580 S.W.2d 753 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1979)

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Bluebook (online)
580 S.W.2d 753, 1979 Mo. LEXIS 356, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-curtis-v-crow-mo-1979.