State v. Meunier

354 So. 2d 535
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedJanuary 30, 1978
Docket60410
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 354 So. 2d 535 (State v. Meunier) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Meunier, 354 So. 2d 535 (La. 1978).

Opinion

354 So.2d 535 (1978)

STATE of Louisiana
v.
Robert E. MEUNIER.

No. 60410.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

January 30, 1978.

*536 Barry Viosca, Orleans Indigent Defender Program, New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Louise Korns, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

SUMMERS, Justice.

In a bill of information it was charged that from June 26, 1975 through July 12, 1975 Robert E. Meunier made repeated telephone communications in a manner reasonably expected to annoy, abuse, torment, harass, embarrass or offend Mrs. Joseph Cerniglia. La.Rev.Stat. 14:285 A(2). Meunier elected to be tried by a jury. He was found guilty and sentenced to serve one year in the parish prison, the sentence being suspended, and Meunier was placed on two years active supervised probation on condition that he engage in gainful employment and receive psychiatric treatment.

The assignments of error are grouped into four arguments in support of defendant's appeal.

At the beginning of June of 1975 Mrs. Joseph Cerniglia began receiving numerous telephone calls, sometimes thirty-eight a day. She thereupon reported these annoyances to the telephone company. At their suggestion she kept a record of the calls. Thereafter they installed a lock-in device on her phone. As a result, it was ascertained that the harassing calls originated from phone number 486-3016, which belonged to the residence where defendant lived with his parents. The police were advised and this prosecution resulted.

I.

In an application for a bill of particulars the defense asked for 1) the number, hour and date of the offensive phone calls, 2) the person, phone number and location to which each of these phone calls was made, 3) the number of the phone from which each call was made, and 4) the particular language constituting the charge.

*537 The State answered 1) there were innumerable calls from June 26, 1975 through July 10, 1975, 2) the person to whom the calls were made was Mrs. Joseph Cerniglia, 5820 Louisville Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the defense was not entitled to the information requested in 3) and 4). However, at an August 15, 1975 hearing held on the application for bill of particulars, defense counsel indicated that he was satisfied with the State's answer to its request number 2, and the court allowed the defense to view the physical evidence in the prosecutor's possession. The physical evidence would include the list of offensive phone calls compiled by Mrs. Cerniglia thus furnishing the defense with the number, hour, date and content of the calls requested in number 1) of the application for particulars. Whereupon the trial judge found the State's response to be adequate, and the defense objected, assigning error.

In response to an application for particulars the State is not required to disclose the details of the evidence it intends to use at the trial to support the prosecution. Generally speaking, the function of the bill of particulars is to inform the accused of matters which are pertinent to the charge against him, which the trial judge in his sound discretion considers necessary in fairness to permit the accused to defend himself. La.Code Crim.Pro. art. 484; State v. Thornton, 351 So.2d 480 (La.1977); State v. Bourg, 248 La. 844, 182 So.2d 510 (1966).

On the basis of the State's response and the hearing evidence, there was no abuse of discretion in the trial judge's ruling.

II.

In a motion to quash the bill of information, the defense alleged that the statute (La.Rev.Stat. 14:285 A(2)) and bill of information were unconstitutional, being in derogation of the Constitution of Louisiana by failing to adequately inform defendant of the nature and cause of the accusation against him. In addition, the motion alleged that the bill of information failed to specify whether the calls were anonymous, the number and date of the calls, or whether they involved conversations. The motion was denied and the ruling is assigned as error.

Pertinent portions of the statute in question provide that "[n]o person shall . . . [m]ake repeated telephone communications anonymously or otherwise in a manner reasonably expected to annoy, abuse, torment, harass, embarrass or offend another, whether or not conversation ensues . . . ." La.Rev.Stat. 14:285 A(2). Section 13 of Article I of the Constitution requires that "In a criminal prosecution, an accused shall be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against him."

Upon the principles thus announced the defense contends that the wording of the statute and the bill of information is so vague and overbroad as to impair the right of the accused to properly defend himself, thus the statute should be declared unconstitutional, and the bill of information should be quashed.

The constitutional guarantee that an accused be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation against him means that penal statutes, upon which bills of information or indictments are based, must describe the unlawful conduct with sufficient particularity and clarity to enable ordinary men of reasonable intelligence to discern their meaning and conform their conduct accordingly. State v. de la Beckwith, 344 So.2d 360 (La.1977); State v. McCoy, 337 So.2d 192 (La.1976).

The words "annoy", "harass" and "embarrass" found in the statute are accompanied by the specific verbs "abuse", "torment" and "offend". By their association in the statute the words acquire a restricted and definite meaning. As this Court pointed out in State v. Hertzog, 241 La. 783, 131 So.2d 788 (1961), upholding the constitutionality of the language now embodied in Section 285 A[1), upon the authority of the rule noscitur a sociis: ". . . general and specific words, capable of analogous meaning, when associated together, take color from each other, so that general words are *538 restricted to a sense analogous to less general."

Applied to the statute before us the rule would require that the words "annoy", "harass", and "embarrass" be considered in conjunction with specific verbs with which they are associated. Thus, "annoy", "harass", and "embarrass" take color from the accompanying verbs "abuse", "torment" and "offend" acquiring thereby more restricted and definite meanings. In the restricted sense which results the statute is neither vague nor overbroad. The words are common and ordinary with well-defined meanings. It is common knowledge that it is unlawful to use a telephone for the purposes set forth in the statute. It would be impracticable to set forth in detail the numerous forms harassment could take.

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354 So. 2d 535, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-meunier-la-1978.