State ex rel. Rear Door Bookstore v. Tenth District Court of AppealsState ex rel. Rear Door Bookstore v. Tenth District Court of Appeals
Thе cause is affirmed on authority of the court of appeals’ decision below, rendered March 21, 1991 and attached as an appendix to this opinion.
Case No. 90-1941
The mandamus action is dismissed as moot.
Appendix
McCormac, Judge.
Defendants-appellants, P & T Investors, Inc., d.b.a. Rear Door Bookstore, and G.J. Wenner, appeal from the judgment of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas finding appellants’ place of business a “public nuisance,” as that term is defined in
Appellants raise the following assignments of error:
“1. The trial court erred as a matter of law, and to the prejudice of the Appellants, in failing to dismiss the complaint on the grounds that the terms ‘lewdness’ and ‘assignation’ appearing in the state nuisance statute are unconstitutionally vague and overbroad, in violation of the due process clauses of the federal аnd Ohio constitutions.
“2. The trial court erred as a matter of law, and to the prejudice of the Appellants, in failing to adopt as definitions of ‘lewdness’ and ‘assignation’ herein, those definitions contained in the 1919 criminal statute: former General Code Sec. 13031-13 [sic 13031-14]; former Revised Code Sec. 2905.26.
“3. The trial court erred as a matter of law, and to the prejudice of the Appellants, in failing to construe the terms ‘lewdness’ and ‘assignation’ appearing in the state nuisance statute, as adjuncts or corollaries to prostitution, under rules of сonstruction.
“4. The trial court erred as a matter of law, and to the prejudice of the Appellants, in refusing to grant the Appellants’ motion to dismiss based upon free speech analysis of the facts and law of this case, under the federal and Ohio constitutions.
“5. The trial court erred as a matter of law, and to the prejudice of the Appellants, in overruling Appellants’ motion to dismiss upon the grounds that the state nuisance statute is unconstitutionally vague relative to scienter,
“6. The trial court erred as a matter of law, and to the prejudice of the Appellants, in failing to grant the Appellants’ motion to suppress evidence.
“7. The trial court erred as a matter of law, and to the prejudice of the Appellants, in failing to limit its closure order to that distinct portion of the premises found to be the locus of nuisance activity.”
From July 1989 through May 1990, after receiving numerous citizens’ complaints regarding the sale of sexually explicit materials, investigators from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office repeatedly visited the Rear Door Bookstore. Once inside the bookstore, the investigators observed an arcade area consisting of several booths. Each booth contained a chair, a box of tissues, a wastebasket, and a monitor for viewing sexually explicit videos. The video monitors were operated by tokens purchased from a bookstore clerk.
On numerous occasions, the deputies retrieved used tissue paper from the floor and wastebaskets of the booths and, on at least two occasions, collected used condoms. Expert testimony was that there was semen on the tissues, and the testing of the condoms showed traces of both semen and epithelial cells indicative of their use during an act of sexual intercourse between a male and female. At one point in the investigation, the booths were observed with the aid of a blacklight which showed semen traces on the walls, seats, ceilings, and doors of the booths. On one occasion, detectives observed two male patrons in booths with the doors to both booths open. As the detectives passed these booths, the men exited and entered booths next to the booths taken by the detectives.
The detectives further reported the strong smell of urine present during one visit. Further testimony indicated that some of the booths had small “peep holes” drilled in the walls separating adjacent booths. These holes appeared to have been puttied over and later redrilled.
There was no evidence that the deputies had actually witnessed any sexual act and there are no allegations of obscenity regarding the videos shown in the booths.
Appellee, S. Michael Miller, Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney, commenced this action on December 18, 1989, pursuant to
The trial court ultimately sustained appellee’s motion for preliminary and permanent injunctions finding that the Rear Door Bookstore was a place in which lewdness, assignation, or prostitution was conducted, permitted, continued, or exists in violation of
By their first assignment of error, appellants argue that the terms “lewdness” and “assignation,” as used in
“ ‘Nuisance’ means that which is defined and deсlared by statutes to be such and also means any place in or upon which lewdness, assignation, or prostitution is conducted, permitted, continued, or exists * *
The overbreath doctrine represents an exception to the usual rules applicable to standing. It permits a party to challenge a statute on its face when others not presently before the court may be affected by the statute’s application. The overbreath doctrine applies only to First Amendment casеs where the challenged law would have a “chilling effect” on constitutionally protected freedoms of speech. Dombrowski v. Pfister (1965),
The activity which resulted in the sanctions imposed against appellants does not involve First Amendment freedoms of speech or activity. The trial court’s judgment was predicated upоn sexual activity which was permitted to occur on the bookstore premises. That activity was not protected expression. The United States Supreme Court decided this issue in Arcara v. Cloud Books, Inc. (1986),
“ * * * [W]e underscored the fallacy pf seeking to use the First Amendment as a cloak for obviously unlawful public sexual conduct by the diaphanous device of attributing protected expressive attributes to that conduct. First
Therefore, since this action does nоt involve elements of protected speech, the overbreath doctrine is inapplicable.
The concept of vagueness, however, does apply to exercises of the state’s police power in areas unprotected by First Amendment guarantees. The vagueness doctrine is founded on a “* * * rough idea of fairness * * Colten v. Kentucky (1972),
However, a statute is not void for vagueness merely because it could have been more precisely worded. Roth v. United States (1957),
The terms “lewdness” and “assignation” are not legal terms of art but are words of common usage. Webster defines “lewd” as: “ * * * sexually unchaste or licentious * * * lascivious * * * inciting to sensual desire or imagination * * Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (1986) 1301. The Oxford English Dictionary gives a similar definition and cites Chaucer for first using the word in popular literature as early as 1386. “Lascivious” is defined by Webster as: “ * * * inclined to lechery: lewd, lustful * * * tending to arouse sexual desire * * *.” Webster’s, supra, at 1274. The Oxford dictionary defines “lascivious” as: “[ijnclined to lust, lewd, wanton.” The Oxford English Dictionary (1989) 666.
“Assignation” has been defined as: “ * * * an appointment of time and place for a meeting esp. for illicit sexual relations. * * * ” Webster’s,
Appellants argue that the dictionary definitions of “lewdness” are nothing more than a string of synonyms that add little to establishing a clear meaning for the term. While there may be some truth in appellants’ argument when considered in a vacuum, the argument fails when the commonly accepted definitions of the words are considered in conjunction with the specific activitiеs in this case and the discussion in controlling cases. The end result is that a meaning can be ascertained which puts a person of ordinary intelligence on notice of what actions are prohibited.
Our research indicates that twenty states have enacted statutes similar or identical to
The common definitions of “lewd” clearly demonstrate that there are activities of a sexual nature which are beyond the limits of what society deems tolerable. We recognize this proposition is tempered by an established right of privacy which generally provides that what two consenting adults do in private is their own concern. Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton, supra. By necessary implication,
In summary, we conclude that the term “lewdness” is not void for vagueness. The word describes a public sexual activity that is reprehensible or disgusting in nature. Its meaning is sufficiently clear to a person of average intelligence and its definition supplies ample guidance to prevent arbitrary and discriminatory enforcement.
It appears that appellants’ primary contention is that a court or legislature cannot prescribe what activity falls below the line of social decency. However,
Appellants’ first assignment of error is overruled as the finding of assignation was not prejudicial.
Appellants secondly argue that the terms “lewd” and “assignation,” used in
Under the first assignment of error, we found that there is a constitutionally sound definition for the terms “lewdness” and “assignation.” We reject the convoluted reasoning advanced by appellants to arrive at a different conclusion.
Appellants’ second assignment of error is overruled.
As a third alternative, appellants suggest that the rule of noscitur a sociis applies to the phrase “lewdness, assignation, or prostitution,” thereby making the first two terms synonymous and complementary to the term “prostitution.” Therefore, appellants argue that the only activity proscribed by
Noscitur a sociis is a rule of construction that states: where two or morе words of analogous meaning are employed together in a statute, they are to be read in their cognate sense to express the same meaning. We perceive two flaws in this line of reasoning. Initially, we have already determined that the terms “lewdness” and “assignation” have meanings of their own separate and apart from the meaning of prostitution. The rule is thereby not applicable since the words used together are not of an analogous meaning. Secondly, the statute is written in the disjunctive by inserting the term “or.”
We again refer to Webster where “disjunctive” is defined as: “ * * * pleading or marked by mutually exclusive alternatives joined by ‘or’ * * *.” Webster’s, supra, at 651. The Ohio Supreme Court has defined the word “or”
Illinois, which has a statute identical to
Appellant’s third assignment of error is overruled.
Appellants next argue that the trial court erred by failing to dismiss the action based upon an unconstitutional infringement of free speech. In support, appellants cite New York’s final holding in Arcara v. Cloud Books, Inc., supra.
Arcara originated within the state court system of New York under that state’s nuisance law, which is similar to
We havе previously expressed our opinion that the sexual activities, which gave rise to the nuisance complaint filed herein, contain no element of protected expression, a view in accord with the United States Supreme Court holding in Arcara. Appellants have cited no Ohio case, nor has our research discovered any authority, for the proposition that the free speech guarantees accorded by the Ohio Constitution are broader than those provided under the United Stаtes Constitution. We have no reluctance in declining to follow New York’s dubious leadership to enlarge Ohio’s constitutional protections to encompass the activities occurring within the Rear Door Bookstore.
Appellants next contend that
Appellants cite State, ex rel. Ewing, v. Without a Stitch (1974),
In order to operate the movie projectors, tokens had to be purchased from a store employee; therefore, the employee knew the patron was about to use the arcade area. Appellee’s expert testified that the semen stains found on the inside of the booths were visible to the naked eye. Appellants supplied tissues and a wastebasket in each booth and presumably, at some point in time, restocked the tissues and emptied the wastebaskets, thereby alerting the attendant to the presence of used tissues. The record, taken as a whole, supports a finding that there was sufficient circumstantial evidence to permit a reasonable inference of knowledge.
Lastly, appellants argue that there is no requirement concerning the frequency of occurrence of the proscribed behavior. Again, assuming, without deciding, that the conduct must occur with some degree of frequency, the evidence clearly establishes that the conduct рermitted in appellants’ bookstore was ongoing, not just an isolated event. Investigators observed evidence of sexual activity on at least eleven separate occasions occurring both before and after a temporary restraining order had been issued.
By their sixth assignment of error, appellants argue that the seizure of the tissues and condoms from the video booths constituted a warrantless search in contravention of the Fourth Amendment. Both the condoms and tissues were found either in wastebaskets or on the floor of the video booths, which were part of a commercial establishment open to the public at large. The deputies who collected the samples entered the bookstore like any other paying customer.
The Fourth Amendment applies to searches and seizures. “ * * * A ‘search’ occurs when an expectation of privacy that society is prepared to consider reasonable is infringed. * * * ” United States v. Jacobsen (1984),
This same conclusion can be reached by applying the plain-view doctrine. Coolidge v. New Hampshire (1971),
Finally, if the aforementioned bases were not sufficient to support the trial court’s ruling, the fact that this is a civil action adds further credence to the overruling of appellants’ motion. Generally, the exclusionary rule has not been applied in civil cases; we see no reason to expand the exclusionary rule to the facts of this case.
Appellants’ sixth assignment of error is overruled.
Appellants finally contend that the trial court erred by ordering the closure of the entire bookstore and not the video booths only, since they were the focal point of the nuisance.
The evidence indicаtes that the operation was run as one unit. Patrons of the booth area had to first purchase tokens from the attendant in the retail area. If we treated the premises as separate units, we would be handling it
Appellants’ seventh assignment of error is overruled.
Appellants’ assignments of error are overruled and the judgment of the trial court is affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.