State v. Foster

838 S.W.2d 60, 1992 Mo. App. LEXIS 1276, 1992 WL 182247
Missouri Court of Appeals·Decided August 4, 1992·No. 57364, 59235·Published·Cited by 24 cases

Opinion

SATZ, Judge.

A jury convicted defendant of five counts of attempting to promote child pornography in the first degree, §§ 573.025, 564.011, RSMo 1986, 1 one count of promoting child pornography in the second degree, § 573.-035, and one count of abuse of a child, § 568.060. The court sentenced him to a total of twenty-five years imprisonment.

Defendant appeals his convictions and sentences and also appeals the denial of his Rule 29.15 motion. We affirm.

For clarity and convenience, we first address defendant’s challenges that are specifically directed to the pornography charges, then his challenges to the child abuse charge and finally his general challenges.

Submissibility: Child Pornography

Defendant argues that the state failed to make a submissible case on each of the charges against him. To determine whether the state made a submissible case, we accept as true all evidence and permissible inferences which support the verdict, reject all contrary evidence and inferences, and determine whether the evidence, so viewed, is sufficient for twelve reasonable people to find the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. E.g., State v. Sanders, 741 S.W.2d 739, 741 (Mo.App.1987).

Facts: Child Pornography, Counts I-VI

Defendant was arrested during the course of a sting operation. A police officer placed an advertisement in the Riverfront Times targeting pedophiles. Defendant responded to the advertisement, and a meeting was arranged. During the meeting, defendant showed the officer a number of slides he had taken of the buttocks and underwear of young girls between the ages of five and nine. In exchange for one of the slides, the officer handed defendant a copy of “Lolita” magazine which contained pictures of explicit child pornography. 2 Defendant photographed several non-consecutive pages of the magazine, but the negatives did not properly develop.

Defendant and the officer next met on the following morning. During this meeting, the officer showed defendant a videotape of five “Lolita” magazines. Defendant told the officer that he could trade the tape for homemade child pornography from Mr. Thomas Knaeble (Knaeble), a friend of defendant’s. Defendant also asked the officer if he had brought more magazines; it was his intention to reproduce the items and take them to Knaeble to trade for other child pornography.

Over the next two weeks, defendant phoned the officer a number of times “to get the items [the officer] had ..., reproduce them, [and] trade them to Mr. Knae-ble for items in his possession.” The two met again, this time in the officer’s unmarked car. During the meeting, the officer gave defendant several issues of the “Lolita” magazine and the pornographic videotape. Defendant told the officer he intended to exchange these items with Knaeble for Knaeble’s homemade child pornography. Then, just as defendant got out of the car carrying the pornographic material, he was arrested by other police officers surveilling him.

Submissibility: Promoting Child Pornography, First Degree § 573.025, Counts I-V

“Child pornography” is “any material or performance depicting sexual conduct, *64 sexual contact, or a sexual performance provided, that it shall not include material which is not the visual reproduction of a live event”. § 573.010(1) (emphasis added). “Material”, as used in this statute, is “anything printed or written, or any picture, drawing, photograph, motion picture film, or pictorial representation ... or any mechanical, chemical, or electrical reproduction”. § 573.010(5). A person commits the crime of promoting child pornography in the first degree, “if, knowing its content and character, [the person] photographs, films, videotapes, produces, publishes or otherwise creates child pornography, or knowingly causes another to do so.” § 573.025.1.

Defendant points out that he photographed photographs, and it was the latter photographs which were the source of the child pornography charges. His photographing of photographs, he argues, was “not the visual reproduction of a live event,” and, therefore, his photographing fit within the exception to the definition of “child pornography”. § 573.010(1). This interpretation is consistent with the statutory scheme, he argues, because the less serious charge of promoting child pornography in the second degree, § 573.035, is focused on distributors, and, therefore, the first degree offense, § 573.025, must be focused on those directly involved with the initial creation of the child pornography.

Defendant’s interpretation of the statutory definition of “child pornography” and its statutory prohibition is strained, at best. Nowhere in the statutory language is there any indication that the prohibited “photographs, films” and the like must be originals; photographs of photographs which were made of “live events” are also visual reproductions of a live event. Moreover, the prohibition against “creating” child pornography does not limit the prohibition to originals. “Create” means to bring into existence or to invest with a new form. Webster’s Third New Inti. Dictionary, (1966). And, “produce” is a statutory equivalent to create. It means “to bring forward ...; offer to view or notice.” Id. Defendant attempted to “create” or “produce” child pornography.

Furthermore, defendant’s interpretation would allow the clever pomographer to avoid prosecution for the promotion of child pornography in the first degree by simply photographing the original photograph, destroying the original and reproducing the photograph of the original. Finally, one of the purposes of the child pornography statutes is to protect children from exploitation. Defendant’s interpretation destroys the ability to effectuate that purpose.

There is no reason to strain the limits of common parlance or legal jargon. Had the General Assembly intended to limit “visual reproduction of a live event,” § 573.010(1), to the original reproduction, it would have so stated. In short, the statutory language prohibits any visual reproduction of a live event.

Submissibility: “Promoting Child Pornography, Second Degree § 573.035, Count VI

“A person commits the crime of promoting child pornography in the second degree if, knowing its content and character, he:

(1) •••
(2) Buys, procures or possesses child pornography with the purpose to furnish it to others.
§ 573.035

Defendant makes the bald statement that “there was no evidence that [he] intended to furnish the materials to another.”

This conclusion is contradicted by the record. The record clearly shows that defendant intended to trade with Knaeble the videotape of child pornography defendant received from the officer. Defendant expected to get different items of child pornography in exchange from Knaeble. 3

*65 Entrapment

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State v. Foster, 838 S.W.2d 60, 1992 Mo. App. LEXIS 1276, 1992 WL 182247 (Mo. Ct. App. 1992).

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