MLC v. State, 2D03-1483.
| Decision Date | 02 July 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. 2D03-1483.,2D03-1483. |
| Citation | 875 So.2d 810 |
| Parties | M.L.C., Appellant, v. STATE of Florida, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
James Marion Moorman, Public Defender, and Judith Ellis, Assistant Public Defender, Bartow, for Appellant.
Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Timothy A. Freeland, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.
M.L.C. was not quite thirteen years old when he allegedly committed several acts of lewd or lascivious molestation on two of his middle-school classmates. He contends that the trial court erred when it failed to grant his motion to dismiss the juvenile delinquency petition on the ground that the evidence did not demonstrate that he acted with lewd or lascivious intent. We agree in part and reverse the order placing M.L.C. on juvenile probation for two offenses but affirm as to two others.
Two girls, twelve and thirteen years old at the time of these incidents, testified that on separate occasions M.L.C. touched them on their clothed buttocks or breasts. M.F. described waiting for the school bus with M.L.C. at their middle-school bus ramp one afternoon. M.L.C. had his arm around her; then he moved his arm down and touched her buttocks over her clothing. V.D. testified that as she waited on the bus ramp with a group of friends, M.L.C. walked up behind her and slid his hand across her buttocks, in a quick second. This was the extent of the evidence undergirding counts one and four of the petition.
Lewd or lascivious molestation, as provided in section 800.04(5)(a),(c)(1), Florida Statutes (2002), proscribes the offender's intentional touch of the victim's buttocks or the clothing covering them "in a lewd or lascivious manner." Here, however, there is no evidence of lewd or lascivious intent in M.L.C.'s split-second contact with the girls' buttocks. Lewd and lascivious are terms undefined by the statutes but explored extensively in case law, and this court, in Egal v. State, 469 So.2d 196 (Fla. 2d DCA 1985), examined various judicial attempts to ascertain their meaning. As stated in Chesebrough v. State, 255 So.2d 675, 678 (Fla.1971), lewd and lascivious generally refer to "unlawful indulgence in lust, eager for sexual indulgence"; and in Boles v. State, 158 Fla. 220, 27 So.2d 293, 294 (1946), the supreme court noted that "`[l]ewd,' `lascivious,' and `indecent' are synonyms and connote wicked, lustful, unchaste, licentious, or sensual design" by an alleged offender. Egal, 469 So.2d at 197.
In this case, neither M.F. or V.D. related any facts from which the court could infer that M.L.C. acted lewdly or lasciviously when he touched their buttocks. Each contact was brief, unaccompanied by suggestive remarks or body language. As this court observed in Egal, a lewd or lascivious purpose "imports more than a negligent disregard of the decent proprieties and consideration due to others." 469 So.2d at 197 (). The evidence is simply insufficient for a finding that M.L.C.'s conduct was grossly indecent, lustful, licentious, or unchaste. We therefore hold, as a matter of law, that the State did not prove that M.L.C....
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Rosen v. State
...jury's factual determination of his intent when he touched the children. See Method, 920 So.2d at 143. We distinguish M.L.C. v. State, 875 So.2d 810, 811 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004), where the court held the defendant's two "split-second" brushes against two girls' buttocks were not lewd and lascivi......
-
State v. Sholl
...the exception applies only when no inference of "lewd or lascivious" conduct can be drawn from the facts alleged. See M.L.C. v. State, 875 So.2d 810, 812 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004). Here, the undisputed facts — as set forth in the motion to dismiss, the traverse, and the hearing — indicated Sholl e......
-
Ostrow v. Imler ex rel. D.I.
...v. State, 255 So.2d 675, 677 (Fla. 1971); Boles v. State, 158 Fla. 220, 27 So.2d 293, 294 (Fla.1946). As noted in M.L.C. v. State, 875 So.2d 810, 812 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004), "a lewd or lascivious purpose imports more than a negligent disregard of the decent proprieties and consideration due to ......
-
Crimes
...incident in which he slid his hand over the victim’s clothed buttocks. The evidence lacks sufficient showing of intent. M.L.C. v. State, 875 So. 2d 810 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004) Third District Court of Appeal The fact that a victim made allegations of similar lewd conduct against other people, in ......