United States v. Apple

305 F. Supp. 330, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9650
CourtDistrict Court, D. Maryland
DecidedDecember 20, 1968
DocketCrim. No. 27983
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 305 F. Supp. 330 (United States v. Apple) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Apple, 305 F. Supp. 330, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9650 (D. Md. 1968).

Opinion

THOMSEN, Chief Judge.

Defendant is charged in a one count indictment with transporting in interstate commerce, from New York to Maryland, for the purpose of sale and distribution, obscene, lewd, lascivious and filthy material, including 1,000 reels of 8 millimeter motion picture film, 400 decks of playing cards and 350 copies of paper bound booklets. 18 U.S.C. § 1465.

Before trial defendant filed a motion, alleging that the material had been illegally seized as the result of an illegal search of his automobile, and prayed that the material be suppressed and not offered against him at the trial of this case. That motion was denied by Judge Northrop, after a hearing at which defendant and two FBI agents testified.

The case came on for trial before me. A jury was waived, and by agreement the case was presented to the Court on a statement of facts, the testimony taken at the hearing on the motion to suppress, which was renewed by defendant, two films (“Village Ball” and “Coffee Break”), seven decks of cards, and six booklets (four titles), all of which were included in the material seized. The film “Village Ball” was shown in the courtroom, and defendant agreed that “Coffee Break” was essentially the same. The Court has examined the cards and booklets.

Defendant raises only two issues: whether the material is obscene under the applicable test, and whether it was illegally seized.

1. All of the material is obscene, hard core pornography, not protected by the First Amendment.

The present state of the law is fully discussed in the three opinions filed in United States v. A Motion Picture Film Entitled “I Am Curious — Yellow”, 404 F.2d 196, (2 Cir., November 26, 1968). Two of the appellate judges found some “redeeming social value” in that film. In the present case, however, the film “Village Ball” is utterly without redeeming social value. It begins with two women disrobing in the presence of two men, and proceeds quickly to scenes, including many close-ups, of sexual intercourse, fellatio, cunnilingus, and other sexual activity by the two naked men and two naked women. There is no story, nothing else. The dominant theme of the material taken as a whole appeals to a prurient interest in sex; there is no other theme and no other appeal. The material is patently offensive because it affronts contemporary community standards relating to the description or representation of sexual matters. Each of the three constitutional criteria for the determination of [332]*332obscene material not protected by the First Amendment has been considered separately by this Court, and has been found to exist.

The same is true of the cards and booklets. A picture is printed on each card, many of which show scenes of sexual intercourse, fellatio and cunnilingus. The small booklets, of 32 pages each, published by All Sport Fornications Press, contain little but descriptions of activities similar to those depicted in the film. Each contains a few full-page photographs of such activities, and a list of 100 other titles now available. The titles of the booklets cf. fered in evidence and the titles of the other booklets advertised therein confirm the nature of the appeal.

2. After reading the transcript of the testimony taken before Judge Northrop I adhere to his conclusion that the material was not illegally seized. From slightly conflicting evidence I find the following facts:

A paid informer, whose identity was disclosed at the hearing on the motion to suppress, and who had previously supplied the FBI with information which proved reliable, brought to a special agent of the FBI on January 17, 1968, two films, “Coffee Break” and “Village Ball”, which he said he had purchased from defendant, his employer, who sold such films at his restaurant. In order to comply fully with the requirements of United States v. Peisner, 311 F.2d 94, 105, 5 A.L.R.3d 1196 (4 Cir. 1962), the agent brought the two films to Assistant United States Attorney Goetz, who called in First Assistant United States Attorney Murphy, who has wide experience in handling cases of alleged obscenity. Goetz and Murphy viewed the film along with another Assistant, and told the agent that in their opinion the films were obscene. The informer told the agent that defendant’s stock of films was running low, and that defendant had made telephone calls to Brooklyn and to a man named Gus in Staten Island to arrange for the delivery of additional films to defendant in New York or New Jersey. One of the agents knew that a man in Staten Island dealt in such material.

During the evening of February 16 the informer told the agent that defendant had made arrangements with his New York contact to pick v. the film that evening on the New Jersey Turnpike. Accordingly, several agents followed defendant’s car when he left Baltimore, somewhere between 8 and 9 p. m. Defendant stopped for food at a restaurant on the New Jersey Turnpike, then had a flat tire at about 10 p. m., waited for a tow truck to replace the tire, and stopped at another restaurant farther v. the Turnpike at about 1:15 a. m. He remained there for about 10 minutes and then proceeded to the Goethals Bridge and onto Staten Island. The agents lost contact with him on the Island, but picked him v. again sometime after 3 a. m. and followed him down the New Jersey Turnpike, noting that his car seemed to ride lower in the back than it had on the way up. The agents followed defendant through Delaware into Maryland until he approached the toll booth on the Kennedy Expressway in Cecil County, Maryland, at dawn, a little before 6:30 a. m. Arrangements had been made to have only one booth open and, as defendant passed through, one of the agents’ cars blocked his passage. An agent approached the car, noticed packages on the back seat similar to the packages in which the films previously examined had been shipped, and noticed that one of the packages containing cards was open. The agent then showed defendant his credentials, said he wanted to examine the car, opened the car door, told defendant to move over and put v. his hands, drove the car to the side of the road, and frisked defendant for weapons, but did not tell him he was under arrest. Two other agents examined the packages in the rear seat and in the trunk, examined the cards, and found the films they were looking for. Agent Noel then told defendant that he was under arrest, charged him with violating 18 U.S.C. § 1465, and advised him of his rights. Defendant made no state[333]*333ment, but agreed that he would rather have one of the agents drive his car to Baltimore than leave it by the toll booth.

On these facts, when the agents stopped the car, they had probable cause to believe that a felony had been committed in their presence and to arrest defendant. Draper v. United States, 358 U.S. 307, 79 S.Ct. 329, 3 L.Ed.2d 327 (1959); United States v. Copes, 191 F.Supp. 623 (D.Md.1961), aff'd sub nom. United States v. Sawyer, 297 F.2d 535 (4 Cir. 1962).

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
305 F. Supp. 330, 1968 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 9650, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-apple-mdd-1968.