State v. Cox

619 S.W.2d 794, 1981 Mo. App. LEXIS 3424
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 2, 1981
DocketNo. 43347
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 619 S.W.2d 794 (State v. Cox) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Cox, 619 S.W.2d 794, 1981 Mo. App. LEXIS 3424 (Mo. Ct. App. 1981).

Opinion

REINHARD, Judge.

Defendant was convicted by the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, sitting without a jury, of the offense of promoting pornography in the second degree, § 573.-030, RSMo 1978, and assessed a fine in the amount of $100. Defendant appeals. We affirm.

On November 29, 1979, Elishia Moore, a plainclothes police detective of the Vice Division of the Metropolitan Police Department of St. Louis, as part of an ongoing investigation into the operation of adult-type bookstores in the City of St. Louis, entered a business establishment, known as the California Book Store, located at 3724 N. Union Street, St. Louis, Missouri, posing as a customer. The officer selected two magazines off the rack, one entitled “Kim” and the other entitled “Seductive Lady.” The officer took the two magazines to the defendant who was standing behind the counter and who was identified by the officer as the store clerk. The magazines were wrapped in clear cellophane, and the officer asked defendant if the material on the inside of the magazines was generally the same as the material on the cover. The defendant said that it was. The officer then indicated to defendant that he desired to purchase the items. They were rung up on the register and the officer gave the defendant the designated amount of purchase money. The officer then revealed his true identity and asked that his money be returned. The defendant returned the money. The officer testified that the money used was the property of the Metropolitan Police Department and that he was accountable for it. The officer stated that at the time he handed the money to the defendant, it was his intention to place defendant under arrest and take back the money. In addition to the testimony of the officer, the state’s evidence consisted of the two magazines. Defendant contends that the court erred in declaring the magazines to be obscene under the rules stated in Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 93 S.Ct. 2607, 37 L.Ed.2d 419 (1973).

Although the issue presented here has been the subject of substantial debate among judges, legal scholars and academicians over the years (see majority, concurring and dissenting opinions in Miller v. California, supra, and McNary v. Carlton, 527 S.W.2d 343 (Mo. banc 1975), the fact remains that a majority of the United States Supreme Court in Miller recognized “that the States have a legitimate interest in prohibiting dissemination or exhibition of obscene material,” Id., 413 U.S. at 18, 93 S.Ct. at 2612, and adopted guidelines in response to this recognition. In McNary, a majority of the Missouri Supreme Court adopted the guidelines established in Miller to enable Missouri to regulate the dissemination of obscene material if these guidelines are met.

In Miller, the court confined the permissible scope of a state’s regulation to works which depict or describe sexual conduct. The conduct must be specifically defined by the applicable state law, and the state offense must be limited to works which meet the court’s guidelines. Id. 413 U.S. at 24, 93 S.Ct. at 2614.

The court then set out the basic guidelines for the trier of fact:

(a) whether the ‘average person applying contemporary community standards’ would find the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, (citations omitted); (b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and (c) whether the [796]*796work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.

Id. at 24, 93 S.Ct. at 2615.

The court gave a few examples of what a state statute could define for regulation under part (b), supra:

(a) Patently offensive representations or descriptions of ultimate sexual acts, normal or perverted, actual or simulated.
(b) Patently offensive representation or descriptions of masturbation, excretory functions, and lewd exhibition of the genitals.

Id. at 25, 93 S.Ct. at 2615.

The guidelines established by Miller have been essentially incorporated by the Missouri General Assembly into Subsections (1) and (10) of § 573.010, RSMo 1978, which state:

(1) ‘Pornographic’, any material or performance is ‘pornographic’ if, considered as a whole, applying contemporary community standards:
(a) Its predominant appeal is to prurient interest in sex; and
(b) It depicts or describes sexual conduct in a patently offensive way; and
(c) It lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
In determining whether any material or performance is pornographic, it shall be judged with reference to its impact upon ordinary adults;
(10) ‘Sexual conduct’ means acts of human masturbation; deviate sexual intercourse; sexual intercourse; or physical contact with a person’s clothed or unclothed genitals, pubic area, buttocks, or the breast of a female in an act of apparent sexual stimulation or gratification;

These subsections define the terms contained in the statute under which defendant was convicted.

In the case before us, the defendant consented to a trial of his case by the court sitting without a jury. Therefore, the court sat as a trier of fact. The court found the material to be pornographic under Missouri law. The photographs in each of these magazines are close-ups of sexual intercourse in various positions, fellatio, cunnilingus, ejaculation, etc. We find no merit in defendant’s contention that the court erred in determining that the magazines were pornographic.

Defendant next contends that the state failed to introduce any evidence to establish that the promotion of pornographic materials was done for pecuniary gain as required by § 573.030, RSMo 1978. Defendant argues that the statute requires evidence of personal financial gain or profit. Section 573.030, RSMo 1978, in its applicable part, reads:

1. A person commits the crime of promoting pornography in the second degree if, knowing its content and character, he: (1) Promotes or possesses with the purpose to promote any pornographic material for pecuniary gain; ....

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Bluebook (online)
619 S.W.2d 794, 1981 Mo. App. LEXIS 3424, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cox-moctapp-1981.