State v. Burke

408 N.W.2d 239, 225 Neb. 625, 1987 Neb. LEXIS 928
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJune 12, 1987
Docket86-809
StatusPublished
Cited by40 cases

This text of 408 N.W.2d 239 (State v. Burke) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska 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. Burke, 408 N.W.2d 239, 225 Neb. 625, 1987 Neb. LEXIS 928 (Neb. 1987).

Opinions

Caporale, J.

Following a bench trial, defendant, Joseph L. Burke, was adjudged guilty of having violated Neb. Rev. Stat. § 28-1463.03(1) (Reissue 1985), a part of the Child Pornography Prevention Act as adopted by 1985 Neb. Laws, L.B. 668, and codified as Neb. Rev. Stat. §§ 28-1463.01 through 28-1463.05 (Reissue 1985), inclusive. Burke was [627]*627thereafter sentenced to serve a term of not less than 2 nor more than 5 years at the Nebraska Penal and Correctional Complex. He appeals and assigns as error the district court’s determination that (1) the participants were under the age of 16, (2) the statute is constitutional, (3) the offense constitutes a Class III felony, and (4) he is not a mentally disordered sex offender. (Burke undertook to raise via a supplemental brief a claim that the sentence imposed is technically defective, but withdrew that claim when appearing for oral argument.) We affirm.

Gerald High, during the course of an investigation of his activities, informed the Lincoln Police Department that Burke owned a large library of pornographic material, some of which was child pornography. The Lincoln police passed the information along to the Omaha Police Division, which then undertook an investigation of Burke’s activities. On November 12, 1985, High telephoned Burke from the Omaha Police Division and arranged a meeting at Burke’s home. High brought Omaha Police Sgt. John Beers along, who posed as a friend of High.

High asked Burke to copy a videocassette tape which High had himself filmed at an earlier time. The High tape shows a number of nude males, at least one of whom is under 16 years of age, displaying their genitals, touching each other’s unclothed genitals, and engaging in masturbation, oral-genital sex, and simulated anal-genital sex.

While the High tape was being copied, High asked Burke to play another videocassette tape for them to watch. Burke complied by playing a tape of a commercial 8-millimeter movie, “Cousin Bill,” which had been filmed in 1975 and transferred to videocassette tape at an undisclosed time. This tape shows boys approximately 10 to 13 years old displaying their genitals, touching each other’s unclothed genitals, and engaging in masturbation, oral-genital sex, and anal-genital sex. During the process of copying the High tape and watching “Cousin Bill,” other officers who had been monitoring the conversation in the Burke home via a hidden microphone on Beers were summoned into the home, and Burke was arrested.

New York v. Ferber, 458 U.S. 747, 102 S. Ct. 3348,73 L. Ed. [628]*6282d 1113 (1982), in upholding the constitutionality of a statute which prohibited persons from knowingly promoting sexual performances by children under age 16 by distributing material which depicts such performances, ruled that even nonobscene child pornography is entitled to no protection under the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution, provided the conduct to be prohibited is adequately defined by applicable state law, as written or authoritatively construed. In so holding, the U.S. Supreme Court recognized that states have a compelling interest in safeguarding the physical and psychological well-being of minors and that states are therefore entitled to great leeway in regulating pornographic depictions of children.

With the Ferber holding in mind, Judiciary Committee Hearing, L.B. 668, 89th Leg., 1st Sess. 112 (Mar. 5, 1985), our Legislature enacted § 28-1463.03(1), which provides: “It shall be unlawful for a person to knowingly make, publish, direct, create, provide, or in any manner generate any visual depiction of sexually explicit conduct which has a child as one of its participants or portrayed observers.”

Some of the terms employed in the foregoing provision are defined in § 28-1463.02, which at the relevant time read:

As used in the Child Pornography Prevention Act, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1) Child shall mean any person under the age of sixteen years;
(2) Erotic fondling shall mean touching a person’s clothed or unclothed genitals or pubic area, breasts if the person is a female, or developing breast area if the person is a female child, for the purpose of real or simulated overt sexual gratification or sexual stimulation of one or more persons involved. Erotic fondling shall not be construed to include physical contact, even if affectionate, which is not for the purpose of real or simulated overt sexual gratification or sexual stimulation of one or more of the persons involved;
(3) Erotic nudity shall mean the display of the human male or female genitals or pubic area, the human female breasts, or the developing breast area of the human female child, for the purpose of real or simulated overt sexual [629]*629gratification or sexual stimulation of one or more of the persons involved;
(4) Sadomasochistic abuse shall mean flagellation or torture by or upon a nude person or a person clad in undergarments, a mask, or bizarre costume, or the condition of being fettered, bound, or otherwise physically restrained when performed to predominantly appeal to the morbid interest;
(5) Sexually explicit conduct shall mean: (a) Real or simulated intercourse, whether genital-genital, oral-genital, anal-genital, or oral-anal between persons of the same or opposite sex or between a human and an animal or with an artificial genital [sic]; (b) real or simulated masturbation; (c) real or simulated sadomasochistic abuse; (d) erotic fondling; (e) erotic nudity; or (f) real or simulated defecation or urination for the purpose of sexual gratification or sexual stimulation of one or more of the persons involved; and
(6) Visual depiction shall mean live performance or photographic representation.

The first assignment of error, that the State failed to prove the age of those depicted in the tapes, is easily resolved. Although Burke assigns such claimed failure as error, he does not discuss the issue in his brief. Errors assigned but not discussed will generally not be considered by this court. State v. Bishop, 224 Neb. 522, 399 N.W.2d 271 (1987); State v. Lynch, 223 Neb. 849, 394 N.W.2d 651 (1986); Neb. Ct. R. of Prac. 9D(1)d (rev. 1986).

While the foregoing rule makes any further consideration of the first assignment unnecessary, it should perhaps be noted that there was in fact no failure of proof concerning the ages of the participants depicted in the tapes. A police report received in evidence reflects that High described all the minors he filmed as being “between the ages of 13 and 16.” If all the minors depicted in the High tape were between 13 and 16 years of age, at least one of them had to be under 16. While Burke objected to “those portions [of the report which] aren’t relevant,” the age of the depicted participants was relevant as a critical element of the State’s burden of proof and thus not within the ambit of [630]*630Burke’s objection.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
408 N.W.2d 239, 225 Neb. 625, 1987 Neb. LEXIS 928, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-burke-neb-1987.