State Ex Rel. Sentinel Star Company v. Lambeth

192 So. 2d 518
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedDecember 3, 1966
Docket1141
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 192 So. 2d 518 (State Ex Rel. Sentinel Star Company v. Lambeth) 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
State Ex Rel. Sentinel Star Company v. Lambeth, 192 So. 2d 518 (Fla. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

192 So.2d 518 (1966)

STATE of Florida ex rel. SENTINEL STAR COMPANY, Inc., a Delaware Corporation, Relator,
v.
The Honorable Douglas S. LAMBETH, Sitting by Special Appointment in the Criminal Court of Record in and for Orange County, Florida, and Arlene Geyer Carlton, Respondents.

No. 1141.

District Court of Appeal of Florida. Fourth District.

December 3, 1966.

*520 George T. Eidson, Jr., of Akerman, Senterfitt, Eidson, Mesmer & Robbinson, Orlando, and Don H. Reuben, Edwin T. Sujack, Lawrence Gunnels and Frank Cicero, Jr., of Kirkland, Ellis, Hodson, Chaffetz & Masters, Chicago, Ill., for relator.

SMITH, Chief Judge.

In this original jurisdiction proceeding the relator asks that this court take jurisdiction and declare an order of the Criminal Court of Record for Orange County, dated September 7, 1966, and reaffirmed November 10, 1966, to be unconstitutional and null and void by our writ of prohibition or mandamus commanding that the order be not enforced or expunged, or both.

The order in question was entered in a cause now pending in the Criminal Court of Record for Orange County in a certain criminal proceeding styled State of Florida v. Arlene Geyer Carlton, Information No. 98731. In that cause Arlene Geyer Carlton is charged with unlawfully keeping a house of ill fame resorted to for the purpose of prostitution or lewdness. The offense charged is a misdemeanor. See §§ 796.01, 775.06 and 775.08 F.S.A.

The order here in question was a part of a long detailed ruling on certain pretrial motions of the defendant. The part affecting the relator provides:

"6. The Motion to Control the publicity has been argued and granted under authority of the case of Sheppard vs. Maxwell [384 U.S. 333, 86 S.Ct. 1507] in 16 Law Ed. [2d] Page 600 wherein the United States Supreme Court Mr. Justice Clark speaking, took to task the then trial judge for failure to control the News media during the presentation of testimony during the pendency of the cause and the Court has therefore placed hereunder the rule and directed that members of the news media shall not report any testimony presented and/or evidence exhibited unless same shall have been presented in open court in the presence of the jury;
"FURTHER, that defense counsel, all members of the Orange County Solicitor's staff, members of the Orlando Police Department, subpoenaed witnesses, bailiffs, clerks, and other officials in attendance to this Court, be forbidden from commenting upon the subject matter of the litigation to agents and employees of all newspapers, television stations, and radio stations with news reporting coverage within Orange County, Florida during the course of said trial;
"FURTHER, that all agents and employees of all newspapers, television stations, and radio stations with news reporting coverage within Orange County, Florida, be excluded from physically appearing and being within the rail in the Courtroom wherein the trial scheduled to commence on September 6, 1966, is to be held during these times when the Court is in session.
"That the newspaper, television, and radio stations with news reporting coverage within Orange County, Florida, and agents and employees are forbidden to photograph the Defendant and witnesses within the Orange County Court House and the Orange County Court House An[n]ex, Orlando, Florida, during the *521 pendency of this cause and from publishing photographs taken of the Defendant and witnesses within the Orange County Court House and the Orange County Court House Annex, Orlando, Florida.
"The intendment of this Order is to prevent pre-trial publicity of a nature that would tend to adversely affect the rights of the Defendant to a fair trial in the eyes of a prospective jury and would tend to wipe out in the eyes of the prospective jury the presumption of innocence of the Defendant.
"The intendment is further that during the course of the trial only such matters as are properly presented before the jury are to be reported, Supra.
"THIS ORDER is to have no post trial effect."

We first consider whether or not this court has jurisdiction to entertain this cause and issue a writ of prohibition or mandamus directed to the Criminal Court of Record for Orange County involving an order entered in a cause then pending in that court on a charge constituting a misdemeanor.

Article V, Section 5(3), Constitution, F.S.A., prescribes the jurisdiction of this court. As to the issue here, it provides:

"Appeals from trial courts in each appellate district * * * may be taken to the court of appeal of such district as a matter of right, from all final judgments or decrees except those from which appeals may be taken direct to the supreme court or the circuit court.
"The supreme court * * * may provide for review by such courts of interlocutory orders or decrees in matters reviewable by the district courts of appeal.
* * * * * *
"* * * A district court of appeal may issue writs of mandamus, certiorari, prohibition, and quo warranto, and also all writs necessary or proper to the complete exercise of its jurisdiction."

The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is set forth in Article V, Section 4(2), Constitution, which provides in pertinent part:

"Appeals from trial courts may be taken directly to the supreme court, as a matter of right, only * * * from final judgments or decrees * * * construing a controlling provision of the Florida or federal constitution * * * The supreme court may directly review by certiorari interlocutory orders or decrees passing upon chancery matters which upon a final decree would be directly appealable to the supreme court. * * *
* * * * * *
"The supreme court may issue writs of mandamus and quo warranto when a state officer, board, commission, or other agency authorized to represent the public generally, or a member of any such board, commission or other agency, is named as respondent, and writs of prohibition to commissions established by law, to the district courts of appeal, and to the trial courts when questions are involved upon which a direct appeal to the supreme court is allowed as a matter of right. * * *"

As to the jurisdiction of circuit courts, Article V, Section 6(3) of the Constitution provides in pertinent part:

"* * * They [the circuit courts] shall have final appellate jurisdiction * * * of all misdemeanors tried in criminal courts of record * * * The circuit courts and judges shall have power to issue writs of mandamus, injunction, quo warranto, certiorari, prohibition, and habeas corpus and all writs necessary or proper to the complete exercise of their jurisdiction. * * *"

Based on the foregoing provisions of the constitution it appears that appellate jurisdiction is not vested in the Supreme Court by direct appeal as a matter of right. This is so because the order of the criminal court of record does not construe a controlling provision of the Florida or federal *522 constitution.[1] See Robinson v. State, Fla. 1961, 132 So.2d 3; Miami Herald Publishing Company v. Brautigam, Fla. 1960, 121 So.2d 431; and Armstrong v. City of Tampa, Fla. 1958, 106 So.2d 407.

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Bluebook (online)
192 So. 2d 518, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-sentinel-star-company-v-lambeth-fladistctapp-1966.