Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1955-09-24
Lewd Magazine
Drive Is Stalled
In Montgomery
Bethesda Newsstand
Operator Acquitted
In Six-Hour Trial

In Six-Hour Trial
A Montgomery County police
campaign to purge newsstands
Of magazines which feature
nude or semi-clad women was
stalled today. It hit q road
block last night when . SUBJ
stitute trial Judge. Samuel Cor
don. sitting in Peoples Court
In Bethesda. acquitted Rudolph
Aron. so. Bethesda newsstand
operator. of q charge Of selling
lewd. obscene and indecent
literature.
His arrest was the result Of
what police said was q county
wide check of newsstands.
At the end Of a six-hour trial.
Judge Gordon ruled that the
State had failed to prove that
the four magazines on which
the case was based were obscene
under Maryland law.
Witness Not an Expert
He pointed out the States only
witness to express an opinion on
the publications. 25-year -old
detective, Marvin Gulick-Was
obviously not an expert"
Judge Gordon's decision came
after an Assistant States Attor-
ney. Andrew Starratt. had plead
ed that more and more Of this
trash is filling up the news
stands and fighting its way into
the homie"
He charged the magazines
contained provocative poses"
and argued that the test Of de-
termining obscenity should be
based on what an average man"
thinks such publications might
do to society"
The arguments Of the defense
attorney. Walter Norman. were
stopped by the Judge who COM
mented that ''the State hasn't
shown anything to satisfy the
court the magazines are
obscene"
Earlier, Mr.. Norman won
q major round In the case when
the Judge ruled out as evidence
245 copies of magazines con-
fiscated by police from a cabinet
at the Aron Newsstand. 7434
Wisconsin avenue, Bethesda.
Judge Gordon yielded to Mr..
Moorman's arguments that the
stack Of magazines, which in
cluded IS different titles, were
obtained by means Of an illegal
search and seizure.
He tod police they had ade-
quate time to get a search war
rant in the four days between
August 2 when Pvt. Gulick ex-
amined the contents of the cab
met and August 6 when Mr. Aron
was arrested at the newsstand
and the periodicals were seized.
Mr.. Aron testified that he kept
his supply Of certain" maya
zines under lock and key In the
cabinet, but gave police the key
the night he was arrested.
Reserved for Adults
THE church people asked me
to reserve the books for adults,
no Juvenile has e ter gotten al
book out of it," he said.
Pvt. Gulick reported he pur-
chased the four magazines on
which the State bases It's case att
four different times. The mag
azines were Modern Sun Bathing I
Man. Cabaret and San Francisco
Confidential.
Most of the trial was devoted
TO legal I1aneuvering until Pvt.
Gulick. father of three small
children. was brought under
sharp REORGANIZATION by Mr..
Norman who led the officer
through a page-by-page critiqle
Of the publication.
The policeman defined as lob
scene" any picture of a woman
showing part Of her body not
ordinarily shown" but qualified
his definition by adding: Il don't
say all nudes are obscene"
He protested several times,
"I'm not an expert" and I'm
not q censor"
Mr.. Norman displayed q vol
ume of the Encyclopedia Brit
AMIGA which contained q photo
graph of Titian's painting Of a.
nude, The Woman on the Couch
"Is that obscene?" he de-
nanded.
ITS considered art" the off,
Ger replied.
Family OF Man Shown
Then the attorney presented
q copy Of the Family Of Man. a
famous compilation of photo
graphs, several Of them nudes,
and a copy Of Life magazine
containing a photograph Of
Michelangelo's painting Of a
nude. from the Sistine Chapel in
Rome.
The officer was asked whether
these were considered obscene.
mo-" he said.
Pvt. Gulick testified he had
been instructed by his superiors
simply to 60 around the county
and check the newsstands for
off-coior publications. No one in
the police department gave him
criterion to follow as to what
was obscene, lewd. or lascivious,
the detective said. n