State v. DH

9 P.3d 253
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedSeptember 18, 2000
Docket44582-1-I
StatusPublished

This text of 9 P.3d 253 (State v. DH) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. DH, 9 P.3d 253 (Wash. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

9 P.3d 253 (2000)

STATE of Washington, Respondent,
v.
D.H., B.D. 04-08-83, Appellant.

No. 44582-1-I.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 1.

September 18, 2000.

*254 James Robert Dixon, Kathryn Allison Russell, Seattle, for Appellant.

Catherine Marie Myers, King Co Prosecutor's Ofc, Seattle, for Respondent.

BECKER, A.C.J.

The juvenile court found D.H. guilty of one count of sexual exploitation of a minor after he videotaped a female high school classmate while she exposed her breasts to him. On appeal, D.H. has failed to sustain his burden of demonstrating that the statutes defining sexual exploitation of a minor are unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, either facially or as applied in this case. We also reject D.H.'s contention that the juvenile court lacked authority to impose a no-contact order as a condition of community supervision. Accordingly, we affirm the adjudication of guilt and order of disposition.

Facts

The relevant facts are undisputed. In June 1998, 15-year-old D.H. brought a video camera to his high school and videotaped three female classmates while they exposed their breasts and buttocks. One of the classmates, 15-year-old K.S., who was approximately four months older than D.H., reluctantly agreed to expose her breasts for the camera only after D.H. followed her around and repeatedly asked her. D.H. then showed the video recording to several classmates.

D.H. was charged in juvenile court with three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor. See RCW 9.68A.040(1)(b). At the factfinding hearing, D.H. testified that the videotaping was part of a contest with a friend to see who could persuade the most female classmates "to flash on camera." He denied that the recording was for sexual stimulation and maintained that he would not be "turned on" by the naked breast of a 17-year-old female, although he acknowledged that he would be aroused by the naked breast of an 18-year-old female. D.H. also acknowledged a prior incident in which he had held a video camera under the skirt of another classmate.

The juvenile court found D.H. guilty of the charge involving K.S., but not guilty of the two remaining counts because the participants had exposed themselves without any encouragement or communication from D.H. The court imposed a standard-range disposition and waived the requirement that D.H. register as a sex offender.

Decision

On appeal, D.H. contends that his adjudication must be reversed because the statutory definition of "sexually explicit conduct" in RCW 9.68A.011(3)(e) is unconstitutionally *255 overbroad. A statute is presumed constitutional, and D.H. bears the heavy burden of proving unconstitutionality beyond a reasonable doubt. State v. Myles, 127 Wash.2d 807, 812, 903 P.2d 979 (1995).

A statute is overbroad if it sweeps within its prohibitions constitutionally protected free speech activities.

The First Amendment overbreadth doctrine may invalidate a law on its face only if the law is "substantially overbroad". In determining overbreadth, "a court's first task is to determine whether the enactment reaches a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct." Criminal statutes require particular scrutiny and may be facially invalid if they "make unlawful a substantial amount of constitutionally protected conduct[.]" ... This standard is very high and speech will be protected "`... unless shown likely to produce a clear and present danger of a serious substantive evil that rises far above public inconvenience, annoyance, or unrest.'"

(Citations omitted.) Seattle v. Huff, 111 Wash.2d 923, 925, 767 P.2d 572 (1989) (quoting Houston v. Hill, 482 U.S. 451, 461, 107 S.Ct. 2502, 96 L.Ed.2d 398 (1987)). The statutes defining sexual exploitation of a minor have withstood multiple overbreadth challenges, and our Supreme Court has observed that "the legitimate reach of [RCW 9.68A.011(3) ] in prohibiting conduct unprotected by the First Amendment far surpasses whatever impermissible application this statute may reach." State v. Myers, 133 Wash.2d 26, 34, 941 P.2d 1102 (1997); see also State v. Farmer, 116 Wash.2d 414, 805 P.2d 200 (1991); State v. Bohannon, 62 Wash.App. 462, 814 P.2d 694 (1991).

D.H. argues that the definition of "sexually explicit conduct" governing his conviction suffers from the same deficiency identified by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Free Speech Coalition v. Reno, 198 F.3d 1083 (9th Cir.1999). In Free Speech Coalition, the court reviewed the Child Pornography Prevention Act of 1996, codified as amended at 18 U.S.C. §§ 2251A-2252. The court held that to the extent the Act defined "child pornography" as a depiction that "appears to be" a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct or "conveys the impression" that it contains a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, the statute was unconstitutionally vague and overbroad:

By criminalizing all visual depictions that "appear to be" or "convey the impression" of child pornography, even where no child is ever used or harmed in its production, Congress has outlawed the type of depictions explicitly protected by the Supreme Court's interpretation of the First Amendment. Because the 1996 Act attempts to criminalize disavowed impulses of the mind, manifested in illicit creative acts, we determine that censorship through the enactment of criminal laws intended to control an evil idea cannot satisfy the constitutional requirements of the First Amendment.... In short, we find the articulated compelling state interest cannot justify the criminal proscription when no actual children are involved in the illicit images either by production or depiction.

Free Speech Coalition, 198 F.3d at 1094-95. The court concluded that the balance of the Child Pornography Prevention Act was constitutional when the two phrases are stricken. Free Speech Coalition, 198 F.3d at 1086.

RCW 9.68A.040(1)(b), which was originally enacted in 1984, provides that a person is guilty of sexual exploitation of a minor if he or she "[a]ids, invites, employs, authorizes, or causes a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct, knowing that such conduct will be photographed or part of a live performance[.]" Under the facts of this case, "sexually explicit conduct" is "actual or simulated":

(e) Exhibition of the genitals or unclothed pubic or rectal areas of any minor, or the unclothed breast of a female minor,

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Related

City of Houston v. Hill
482 U.S. 451 (Supreme Court, 1987)
State v. JH
978 P.2d 1121 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1999)
State v. Myers
941 P.2d 1102 (Washington Supreme Court, 1997)
State v. Armstrong
959 P.2d 1128 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1998)
State v. Alvarez
872 P.2d 1123 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1994)
City of Seattle v. Huff
767 P.2d 572 (Washington Supreme Court, 1989)
State v. Bohannon
814 P.2d 694 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1991)
State v. Clark
958 P.2d 1028 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1998)
State v. Farmer
805 P.2d 200 (Washington Supreme Court, 1991)
City of Spokane v. Douglass
795 P.2d 693 (Washington Supreme Court, 1990)
State v. Myles
903 P.2d 979 (Washington Supreme Court, 1995)
State v. Alvarez
904 P.2d 754 (Washington Supreme Court, 1995)
State v. Chester
940 P.2d 1374 (Washington Supreme Court, 1997)
State v. Myers
133 Wash. 2d 26 (Washington Supreme Court, 1997)
State v. D.H.
9 P.3d 253 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 2000)
State v. Armstrong
959 P.2d 1128 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1998)
State v. J.H.
96 Wash. App. 167 (Court of Appeals of Washington, 1999)
Free Speech Coalition v. Reno
198 F.3d 1083 (Ninth Circuit, 1999)

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9 P.3d 253, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-dh-washctapp-2000.