State v. Dornblaser

267 N.E.2d 434, 26 Ohio Misc. 29, 55 Ohio Op. 2d 88, 1971 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 242
CourtCuyahoga County Common Pleas Court
DecidedMarch 8, 1971
DocketNo. 93911
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 267 N.E.2d 434 (State v. Dornblaser) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Dornblaser, 267 N.E.2d 434, 26 Ohio Misc. 29, 55 Ohio Op. 2d 88, 1971 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 242 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1971).

Opinion

Pbyatel, J.

The grand jury returned an indictment against the defendant for the “sale of obscene films.” Within season the defendant filed a Motion to suppress on two grounds: (1) that there was no prior adversary hearing on the question of obscenity; and (2) that R. C. 2905.34, under which the defendant was charged, is unconstitutional.

The facts in the instant case reveal that an operator of a service station at Whitethorn & Lorain in North Olmsted, ,was approached by R. E. (the codefendant), who stopped in for repairs to his auto and asked the operator if he were interested in purchasing some films and find a place where they could be shown. Upon inquiry as to their contents, the codefendant advised him that “they were of men and wom'an having sexual intercourse, acts of sodomy, things of títat sort,”

[30]*30The service station operator reported the conversation to the police who instructed him “to tell the codefendant that he would have some such friends and that he (the operator) did have a place to show films.”

With the co-operation of the motel manager and West-lake Police, the showing was arranged for October 17,1969, at 8:00 p. m.

Between 8:30 and 9 :00 p. m., the codefendant arrived at the motel equipped with a projector and screen. Shortly thereafter the defendant arrived. In the room viewing the films were Patrolman Wolfe of the North Olmsted Police Department and employees of the Service Department. Upon prearranged signal, Lt. Marion Taylor, the officer in charge, was to move in along with fellow officers to make an arrest, if the films were “obscene.”

According to uncontroverted testimony of the officers, the film “depicted sodomy and acts of sexual intercourse and various sexual acts.” The defendant assisted in loading the film and ran the projector on one or two instances.

After the films were run, the defendant, in answer to a query, answered that the “colored films” were $35.00 and the “black and white films” were $14.00. The defendant then left the room and returned with additional films which displayed “unnatural sex acts between man and woman, two men and a woman, two women * * *.”

Further testimony developed that the films were purchased from defendants with money advanced by the police.

There was no admission charged and the door was locked by the codefendant. The viewers were made up of police and service department employees and the service station operator. No adversary proceedings on the issue of obscenity were held. The arrests were made and both defendants were indicted for “sale of obscene film.”

The defendant contends that he is entitled to adversary proceedings and bases his decision on the case of State v. Brooks (1970), 24 Ohio Misc. 125. An examination of that case shows that the conclusion reached there was based on Marcus v. Search Warrant (1961), 367 U. S. 717 and A Quantity of Books v. Kansas (1964), 378 U. S. 205.

[31]*31In Marcus, the Circuit Court of Jackson County, Missouri, issued a search and seizure warrant against a wholesale distributor of magazines and books and operators of retail newsstands, under the authority of Missouri procedures permitting the search for and seizure of allegedly obscene publications preliminary to their distribution if the Court finds them to be obscene. (Italics ours.)

The essential facts are as follows: Lt. Coughlin of the Kansas City Police Department, Vice Squad, upon investigation of distribution of obscene magazines, visited the distributor’s place of business and approached its manager, Homer Smay, and showed him a list of magazines. Smay admitted that, except for one magazine on the list, his company distributed them. Lt. Coughlin then purchased one magazine at each of five stands and subsequently swore out a complaint “that of his own knowledge the appellant kept for the purpose of sale # # * obscene * * * publications.” No copies of any magazines purchased by the lieutenant were filed with the complaint or shown to the Circuit Judge who issued the warrant to search and seize the obscene material.

The distributor’s stock of magazines ran “into hundreds of thousands and up to a million copies.” On examining the publications, the officers did not restrict themselves to those on Lt. Coughlin’s original list, but seized all magazines which, in their judgment, “were obscene * * * or ought to be picked up,” as well as all copies. In total, 11,000 publications were seized from six places.

The Circuit Court and Supreme Court of Missouri upheld these procedures. The United States Supreme Court reversed, holding that Missouri procedures lacked the safeguards “to assure non-obscene material the constitutional protection to which it is entitled.”

In ruling on that case, the United States Supreme Court concerned itself with appellant’s contention that the protection of free speech and press assured by the Fourteenth Amendment against state abridgement was violated in that (1) seizure by police was allowed prior to determining whether the publications were obscene; and (2) the procedures permitted police officers to make a [32]*32determination after the warrant was issued as to which magazines were obscene and subject to seizure in violation of movant’s freedom of speech and publication.

In support of the reversal, the court pointed out that the warrant was issued on the basis of the conclusions of a single officer without any scrutiny by the judge of any of the so-called “obscene” materials. Of the books suppressed, 180 publications were found not to be obscene. Only one-third of the publications seized were finally condemned and the court concluded that the procedures of the Missouri laws were too broad and did not meet the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Under these conditions, the Supreme Court would not and did not sanction the state statutes that permitted such procedures. The judge who issued the warrant had no evidentiary facts before him on which he could determine the existence of probable cause and additionally, the procedure countenanced in Missouri did not accord due process demands to give nonobscene material the constitutional protection to which it is entitled.

Mindful of the holding of the U. S. Supreme Court in the Marcus case, and in an effort to avoid the pitfalls discussed there, the State Attorney General of Kansas in A Quantity of Books v. Kansas, filed an information pursuant to statute with the district judge alleging that a news service possessed obscene paperback novels. The Attorney General specifically identified the novels, and the judge conducted a 45 minute ex parte inquiry wherein he' examined seven books and ruled that “they appeared to be obscene.” Subsequently he conducted a full hearing and held that the books were obscene and ordered them destroyed. The Supreme Court of Kansas upheld the lower court’s decision, but the Supreme Court of the United States reversed the holding, although its members were unable to agree on an opinion supporting their reversal.

The Supreme Court held that, by failing first to grant a hearing on the question of obscenity, the procedure ‘

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Related

Maryland v. MacOn
472 U.S. 463 (Supreme Court, 1985)
State v. Brooks
486 N.E.2d 135 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1984)
State v. Shackman
278 N.E.2d 61 (Franklin County Municipal Court, 1971)

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Bluebook (online)
267 N.E.2d 434, 26 Ohio Misc. 29, 55 Ohio Op. 2d 88, 1971 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 242, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-dornblaser-ohctcomplcuyaho-1971.