Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Appeals court orders new trial in McDonald County obscenity case

In an opinion issued today, the Missouri Southern District Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for the owner of an adult business in McDonald County.

Robert Crump, owner of Midnight Video, was convicted in 2006 on three misdemeanor counts of promoting obscenity, based on a number of controlled buys by a member of the Southwest Missouri Drug Task Force at the request of the McDonald County prosecuting attorney:

A jury trial was held on June 15 and 16, 2006. As previously set out, Appellant was convicted of all three counts of promoting obscenity in the second degree.
Appellant raises three points of trial court error. Appellant's second point relied on is dispositive. It asserts the trial court erred in overruling Appellant's motion to dismiss the information filed against him "because the information was defective in that the affidavit of probable cause as required by Rule 21.04, failed to state facts to support a finding of probable cause to believe a crime was committed because it failed to state any facts describing the contents of the videos."
The State concedes the trial court erred in overruling Appellant's motion to dismiss the information and joins Appellant in requesting our reversal of Appellant's conviction and remand for a new trial. The State recites that it "has thoroughly researched [the second point] and both parties after full consideration . . . agree that the case law is clear and convincing beyond any doubt that that point is meritorious and Appellant's conviction should be reversed. Neither party contends this point of error was harmless." The State also asserts "[t]hat Appellant's point II is so convincing it renders the other two points moot and neither party wants to cause this Honorable Court to be required to review the six hours of sexually explicit 'adult' material under point III." Appellant's second point relied on has merit. We reverse the judgment and sentence of the trial court and remand the matter for a new trial pursuant to the stipulation of the parties.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Drug Task Force doing porn raids? Does anyone else see the problem?