State v. Swann, C-000567.
Decision Date | 30 March 2001 |
Docket Number | No. C-000567.,C-000567. |
Citation | 142 Ohio App.3d 88,753 NE 2d 984 |
Parties | The STATE of Ohio, Appellee, v. SWANN, Appellant. |
Court | Ohio Court of Appeals |
Fay D. Dupuis, City Solicitor, Terrence R. Cosgrove, City Prosecutor, and Frances L. Sheard, Senior Assistant City Prosecutor, for appellee.
Darin S. Barber, for appellant.
Defendant-appellant Remeka Swann was convicted of soliciting. Remarkably, the facts are not even in dispute. According to Cincinnati Police Officer Chancey Prude, he and his partner, who was hiding in the trunk of their unmarked car, were patrolling to catch prostitutes. Swann was walking along the street, and Prude pulled his car to the curb and engaged her in conversation. He then invited her into the car, and they discussed various things, at first not of a sexual nature.
Officer Prude testified that the sexual issue arose in the following manner: At that point, a prearranged signal brought Prude's partner from his hiding place in the trunk, and he arrested Swann.
Swann's testimony is similar:
The charge against Swann was soliciting, in violation of R.C. 2907.24, which states that "[n]o person shall solicit another to engage with such other person in sexual activity for hire." In spite of the syntactically jumbled sentence, we can discern that three elements make up the offense: (1) the accused's solicitation of another, (2) to engage in sexual activity, (3) for hire.2 The first element is the only one in question here. "Solicit" is defined as "to entice, urge, lure or ask."3
The state's position is that any time a person agrees to have sex for money, the statute is violated. That would be true if the statute read "agree with another" rather than "solicit another." But we cannot redraft the statute; we have to hold that it means what it says. Furthermore, criminal statutes, according to the same statutory scheme, are to be interpreted strictly against the state.4
Swann did not "entice, urge, lure or ask" the officer for anything. She simply agreed to his suggestion. This case is almost exactly the same as State v. Howard,5 the facts of which were as follows: 6
The court in Howard ruled as follows: 7
We agree with the reasoning of Howard that, in a soliciting case, the crime is the asking.8 Swann was the solicitee, not the solicitor. Although she agreed to the solicitation, the specific crime with which she was charged does not prohibit acceptance, only entreaty. Of course, if she had gone through with the act, she would have been guilty of prostitution, regardless of who had made the original solicitation. That distinction makes sense,...
To continue reading
Request your trial-
State v. Snyder
...the method by which Snyder was convicted of soliciting a minor is included in the definition. {¶ 13} Snyder cites State v. Swann (2001), 142 Ohio App.3d 88, 753 N.E.2d 984, as authority for the elements of solicitation. In the Swann case, "solicit" was defined as "to entice, urge, lure or a......
-
Blakeman v. State
...a specific person"). Similarly, Ohio Pattern Jury Instructions define solicit as: "to entice, urge, lure or ask." State v. Swann, 142 Ohio App.3d 88, 753 N.E.2d 984, 985 (2001), quoting, 4 Ohio Jury Instructions (1997) 199, § 507.24. The district court's definition of "solicit" in this case......
-
Fry v. Robinson
... ... See Sampson , 108 F.Supp.2d at 837 (citing ... Whiteley v. Warden, Wyo. State Penitentiary , 401 ... U.S. 560, 565, 91 S.Ct. 1031, 28 L.Ed.2d 306 (1971)). While ... Robinson ... Simply ... agreeing to a solicitation from a minor is not enough ... See State v. Swann , 142 Ohio App.3d 88, 753 ... N.E.2d 984, 985 (Ohio Ct.App. Mar. 30, 2001). However, ... sending ... ...
-
State v. Wendling
...in those cases did not solicit, but merely agreed to conduct suggested by the police. {¶ 19} This court has previously analyzed Howard and Swann as In Swann, a Cincinnati police officer was patrolling for evidence of prostitution. A second officer was hidden in the trunk of the unmarked car......