Boles v. State
| Decision Date | 23 July 1946 |
| Citation | 27 So.2d 293,158 Fla. 220 |
| Parties | BOLES v. STATE. |
| Court | Florida Supreme Court |
Rehearing Denied Sept. 18, 1946.
Appeal from Criminal Court of Record, Dade County; Ben C. Willard, judge.
Wallace F Perry, of Miami, for appellant.
J. Tom Watson, Atty. Gen., and Reeves Bowen and Shannon Lining, Jr Asst. Attys. Gen., for appellee.
J. C. Boles was tried and convicted on an information charging that he did make a lewd and lascivious assault on a child twelve years of age. He was sentenced to serve two and one-half years in the state penitentiary at hard labor and prosecuted this appeal from that judgment.
The information was exhibited under Section 800.04, Florida Statutes 1941 F.S.A., which is as follows:
'Any person who shall handle, fondle or make an assault upon any child under the age of fourteen years in a lewd, lascivious or indecent manner, or who shall knowingly commit any lewd or lascivious act in the presence of such child, without intent to commit rape upon such child, shall be deemed guilty of a felony and punished by imprisonment in the state prison or county jail for not more than ten years.' In fine, the statute condemns an assault on or an act committed in the presence of a child under fourteen years of age in a lewd, lascivious, or indecent manner, without intent to commit rape. The assault or the act is constituted a felony, and the maximum penalty is ten years in the county jail or the state prison. 'Lewd' 'lascivious', and 'indecent' are synonyms and connote wicked, lustful, unchaste, licentious, or sensual design on the part of the perpetrator.
Let us look at the picture presented by the evidence and see if it reveals a lustful or sensual purpose on the part of appellant. He was a man forty-seven years of age and was operating a shoe repair shop at Opa Locka, a suburb of Miami, Florida. He had seven children, all of whom were grown but two, and they were infants. His shoe repair shop was on a public thoroughfare, frequented by the general public; it had a counter and other accessories common to a place of that kind. It appears to have been a popular trysting place for children. They played in and about the shop, and he often had to drive them from behind the counter because of their getting in danger of the repair machines.
The prosecuting witness was twelve years old and went to Boles' shoe shop about the time alleged to get a pair of shoes repaired. She says she placed the shoes on the counter, that Boles was behind the counter, that he put his arms around her, with his right hand on her right breast and his left hand on her left breast, and told her she was his little sweetie, as if she were his daughter. Boles denied this and testified that he remembered that at one time she came in his shop to get some repair work done and came behind his counter and that he put his hand on her shoulder and told her she must keep from behind the counter because the machines were dangerous.
There was no other direct testimony, but four other children, about the age of the prosecutrix, who heard her testimony (though the rules as to witnesses was timely invoked), were brought up and permitted to testify to instances in which they had been to Boles' shoe shop when he had placed his arms around them or on their shoulders and spoken...
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Rhodes v. State
...42 Fla. 560, 28 So. 774; Whitehead v. State, 48 Fla. 64, 37 So. 302; Faulkner v. State, 146 Fla. 769, 1 So.2d 857; and Boles v. State, 158 Fla. 220, 27 S.Ct. 293.' (p. Chesebrough then further states: (255 So.2d 678) 'Lewdness, or open and public indecency, were offenses even at common law.......
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Miami Health Studios, Inc. v. City of Miami Beach
...Indecency, etc., § 1, pp. 450-451, which contains a discussion of the common law definition of lewdness. This Court in Boles v. State, 158 Fla. 220, 27 So.2d 293 (1946), in discussing Fla.Stat. § 800.04, F.S.A., `In fine, the statute condemns an assault on or an act committed in the presenc......
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Lanier v. State
...Chesebrough v. State, 255 So.2d 675 (Fla.1971), cert. denied, 406 U.S. 976, 92 S.Ct. 2427, 32 L.Ed.2d 676 (1972). Cf. Boles v. State, 158 Fla. 220, 27 So.2d 293 (1946).6 The State contends that this very question was decided adversely to Lanier in Dunson v. State, 194 So.2d 68. We disagree.......
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...aged 11. Assuming, arguendo, that this is a 'lewd or lascivious act' clearly within the intendment of § 800.04, cf. Boles v. State, 1946, 158 Fla. 220, 27 So.2d 293, the fact remains that the exhibition of a lewd and pornographic picture has been specially and explictly dealt with by Subsec......