State v. Booker

2006 WI 79, 717 N.W.2d 676, 292 Wis. 2d 43, 2006 Wisc. LEXIS 373
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedJune 29, 2006
Docket2004AP1435-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by41 cases

This text of 2006 WI 79 (State v. Booker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Booker, 2006 WI 79, 717 N.W.2d 676, 292 Wis. 2d 43, 2006 Wisc. LEXIS 373 (Wis. 2006).

Opinions

PATIENCE DRAKE ROGGENSACK, J.

¶ 1. The State of Wisconsin challenges the court of appeals decision reversing the conviction of Tyrone Booker (Booker) on two counts of exposing a child to harmful materials, contrary to Wis. Stat. § 948.11 (2003-04).1 The court of appeals concluded that the evidence was not sufficient to sustain the jury's verdict because the jury did not view the video alleged to be "harmful material," but instead heard only the children's and a detective's descriptions of what they saw. We conclude that the testimony that depicted the content of the [46]*46video scenes shown to the children was sufficient to support the jury's verdict that Booker violated § 948.11 by exposing children to harmful material. Accordingly, we reverse the decision of the court of appeals in that regard.

I. BACKGROUND

¶ 2. The relevant facts are undisputed. On December 17, 2001, Shequila and her two friends, Sabrina and Deana, skipped school and went to visit Deana's boyfriend, Donta, at his home. At the time, Shequila was 14, and Sabrina and Deana were 12 and 13, respectively. When they arrived at Donta's apartment, Booker, Donta's mother's boyfriend, let them into the apartment. Deana asked Booker where Donta was and he told her Donta had left but would return soon. The girls sat down in the living room. Booker then told them that on a previous night, when Deana and Sabrina had visited the apartment, he had taped them on video without their knowing it. He said he would show them the tape. He brought a VCR and a video cassette labeled "Robert" from a bedroom to the living room.

¶ 3. The "Robert" video Booker showed the girls was a pornographic video of naked women and men engaging in various sexual acts. According to the girls' testimony at trial, Booker fast-forwarded through the video, stopping to show various scenes depicting naked women performing fellatio on naked men. One of the girls asked Booker to stop playing the video, and he did.

¶ 4. The girls later explained that parts of the video they saw showed scenes of women performing fellatio on men, a scene of a man dressed as a security guard receiving fellatio from several women dressed as cheerleaders and a scene of a man and a woman having penis-to-vagina intercourse.

[47]*47¶ 5. Shortly after showing the girls these parts of the videotape, Booker got a phone call from Donta's brother's daycare. He told the girls they had to go with him to pick up Donta's brother because he could not leave them at home alone. The girls went on foot with Booker. After retrieving the little boy from daycare, on the way home, Booker picked up a tree branch and told the girls that he would whip the little boy with it unless one of the girls danced for him when they returned to the apartment. Amongst themselves, the girls protested that they did not want to be the one to do it, but after the little boy started crying, Shequila said she would dance. When they arrived back at the house, Booker put on music and told Shequila to dance. Shequila began to dance to the music, and soon after, Donta arrived.

¶ 6. The three girls went with Donta into his bedroom. Booker came to the bedroom door and said to send Shequila back out, because she was not finished dancing. Shequila obliged, and then returned to the bedroom. Booker again returned to the bedroom, this time threatening to call the girls' parents or the police to tell them that the girls were skipping school if the girls did not leave. He said he wanted one of the girls to go alone in a room with him, and if someone did it, the girls would not get in trouble. Shequila agreed to do it so that the girls would not get into trouble, but told him he could not touch her.

¶ 7. When Booker and Shequila were in the bedroom alone, he asked her if she "was ready" and reminded her that he was going to call "the people" to tell them that she had skipped school if she did not cooperate. He asked her if she was going to take off her clothes. Shequila obliged and stripped down to her bra. He told her to he down, and then he pushed her legs open and [48]*48proceeded to assault her by probing her vaginal area with his thumb and mouth.

¶ 8. At trial, Shequila, Sabrina, and Deana all testified about the contents of the video that Booker showed them. The investigating detective, who had viewed the entire video, also described it in detail. The witnesses consistently described the video as consisting of multiple episodes, all of which focused on various sexual acts, as the following excerpts from Shequila's and the testifying detective's testimonies illustrate. Shequila testified as follows:

Q: What did you see?
Shequila: A woman with a man's penis in her mouth.
Q: The woman— Describe the scene you saw. You saw a penis in her mouth; is that right?
Shequila: Yes.
Q: Anybody wearing any type of clothing?
Shequila: No.
Q: In that scene nobody was wearing anything?
Shequila: They had took it off.
Q: So the woman is naked?
Shequila: Yes.
Q: And the man is naked?
Shequila: Yes.
Q: So you see that image on this TV screen; is that right?
Shequila: Yes.
[49]*49Q: And describe what happens then?
Shequila: He stopped it, and he fast-forwarded it to another part.
Q: And then what happened?
Shequila: It was a part with the security guard on it.
Q: Pardon?
Shequila: It showed a part with a security guard.
Q: And what did you see happening with the security guard?
Shequila: A woman.
Q: And what did you see happening with the woman?
Shequila: She put his penis in her mouth.
Q: And the woman, what was she dressed like, or did she have any clothes on?
Shequila: Like cheerleaders.
Q: When you say "like cheerleaders," do you mean like a cheerleading outfit?
Shequila: Yes.
Q: When you say "the woman," did the person, the females depicted, did they look—
Shequila: Like in their twenties.
Q: What else happened with that tape; what else did you see?
[50]*50Shequila: He stopped it and fast-forwarded it to another part.
Q: Describe what you saw then?
Shequila: It was another cheerleader. It was just one, and it was a dude in his bedroom.
Q: And what did you see happen in that scene?

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2006 WI 79, 717 N.W.2d 676, 292 Wis. 2d 43, 2006 Wisc. LEXIS 373, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-booker-wis-2006.