State v. Ketter

364 N.W.2d 459, 1985 Minn. App. LEXIS 3942
CourtCourt of Appeals of Minnesota
DecidedMarch 19, 1985
DocketC6-84-1078
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 364 N.W.2d 459 (State v. Ketter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Ketter, 364 N.W.2d 459, 1985 Minn. App. LEXIS 3942 (Mich. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

OPINION

LANSING lude^e ’ g '

Appellant was charged with misdemean- or prostitution in violation of Minn.Stat. § 609.324, subd. 3(1) (1982). She unsuccessfully moved to dismiss the complaint for lack of probable cause and on the ground that the statute was facially unconstitutional.

The case proceeded to trial, and a jury found appellant guilty. She moved for a new trial, alleging evidentiary error and error in refusing to give a requested jury instruction. The trial court denied the motion, and she appealed. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand for a new trial.

FACTS

On September 8, 1983, Lieutenant Roger Brown, a vice squad officer, went to the Nirvana Club located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was met at the door by appellant Yong Cha Ketter. She testified that he requested a $15 massage from her, which he received. He testified that he gave her $25 for a “special massage.”

Brown’s and Ketter’s testimony about the events after the massage strongly diverge. Brown testified that Ketter asked him if he was interested in anything else and how much money he had to. spend. He testified that after discussion she agreed to “do everything” if he would spend enough money and then had him move to another room, where she asked him if he wanted to massage her. He said “no” and indicated that he wanted to do “what we discussed upstairs.” Brown testified that during the conversation Ketter asked him if he had any condoms with him, and when he said no, she asked him to withdraw prior to ejaculation so she would not get pregnant. Brown said she then attempted to perform oral sex on him, for which he placed her under arrest. He testified that Ketter told him she needed money from prostitution to support her family, which she had brought from Korea.

Ketter testified that after the initial $15 massage, Brown said he wanted more mas *462 sage and told her he had $150. She told him she would give a satisfying massage for “whatever [he] can afford to pay” and that Brown then offered her $100. She stated that she took him to a different room and offered him an “exchange massage,” in which they would massage each other and she would be topless. She testified that he agreed to the exchange massage and then asked her for oral sex. When she refused, he asked her to have intercourse. She said she refused because she was not taking birth control pills. He then asked her whether she had any condoms. She said no but then asked him whether he had any condoms. She said she sometimes asked customers this question as an excuse “to get away from sex,” because customers do not bring condoms. She testified that Brown again asked for oral sex and that she then “grabbed” his penis to make him “come * * * quick” so she could “get away from him.” She denied ever telling Brown that she was engaging in prostitution to help her family.

At trial Ketter attempted to introduce expert testimony on the ineffectiveness of withdrawal as a method of birth control and to introduce for purposes of impeachment Brown’s prior statements made in connection with investigations of prostitution charges against other individuals. The trial court disallowed the evidence. It admitted evidence indicating that Ketter owned the Nirvana Health Club, which she claims was error, and it refused Ketter’s request to instruct the jury on the entrapment defense.

The jury found Ketter guilty as charged, and she was sentenced to 90 days incarceration, stayed for one year on the condition that she engage in no acts of prostitution or indecent conduct.

ISSUES

1. Is Minn.Stat. § 609.324, subd. 3(1), facially unconstitutional as a violation of the right to privacy?

2. Did the trial court err in refusing to give an entrapment instruction?

3. Did the trial court err in admitting evidence regarding Ketter’s ownership and management of the Nirvana Health Club?

4. Did the trial court err in excluding Ketter’s expert testimony on the ineffectiveness of withdrawal as a method of birth control?

5. Did the trial court err in refusing to admit evidence of Brown’s inconsistent pri- or statements?

ANALYSIS

I

Minn.Stat. § 609.324, subd. 3(1) (1982), prohibits “engagpng] in prostitution with an individual 18 years of age or above.” Prostitution is defined as “engaging or offering or agreeing to engage for hire in sexual penetration or sexual contact.” Minn.Stat. § 609.321, subd. 9 (1982). Ket-ter argues that these statutes violate her basic constitutional right to privacy by making private sexual relations between consenting adults criminal.

The constitutional right to privacy protects a number of fundamental rights, especially in matters of family, sex, and procreation. See, e.g., Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438, 92 S.Ct. 1029, 31 L.Ed.2d 349 (1972); Stanley v. Georgia, 394 U.S. 557, 89 S.Ct. 1243, 22 L.Ed.2d 542 (1969); Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965). The right of privacy Ketter asserts, however, is broader than that recognized by the Constitution.

As the trial court noted, sexual activity between consenting adults is not always beyond state regulation. The trial court relied on Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton, 413 U.S. 49, 93 S.Ct. 2628, 37 L.Ed.2d 446 (1973), in which an adult thea-tre asserted a privacy right to show obscene films to paying adults. The Supreme Court found the idea of a privacy right and a place of public accommodation mutually exclusive. See id. at 66-67, 93 S.Ct. at 2639-2640. Ketter argues that a private room in the Nirvana Health Club is not a public place. It is public, however, in the *463 same sense that the theatre in Paris Adult Theatre I is public — it is open to the public for the price of admission.

We also agree with the Iowa Supreme Court’s reasoning in State v. Price, 237 N.W.2d 813, 818 (Iowa 1976), that prostitution is not identifiable with or reasonably analogous to the kinds of sexual conduct which have been recognized as within the constitutional right of privacy:

Prostitution implicates more than private sexual relations between consenting adults. It affects others including the community. Although usually transacted in private, it is nevertheless business which is frequently negotiated in public. Although intimate, it is impersonal. Although involving only consenting adults at the time, it may be a factor in the spread of venereal disease or have a close relationship with other criminal activity.

Id.

Ketter argues, in addition, that speech does not lose constitutional protection merely because its object is commercial gain; therefore, consensual sexual conduct should similarly not lose protection because it involves payment.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
364 N.W.2d 459, 1985 Minn. App. LEXIS 3942, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ketter-minnctapp-1985.