Opinion ID: 1827977
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sufficient facts stated in complaints.

Text: Whether a complaint contains sufficient allegations of fact has been stated many times by this court to be whether the allegations of fact made in the complaint are sufficient for a fair-minded magistrate [to] conclude that the facts and circumstances alleged justify further criminal proceedings and that the charges are not merely capricious. [1] Minimal adequacy in a commonsense evaluation has been suggested as the determinative question. [2] Although the complaint itself must charge facts sufficient to give rise to reasonable inferences that probable cause exists, [3] all of the underlying circumstances need not appear in the complaint. [4] In the instant situation, the three complaints meet the minimal standard. Complainant includes factual data along with his ultimate conclusion of obscenity. He states the pictures are of nudes and seminudes with the genitalia area most clearly exposed. He suggests this to be the dominant theme of the magazines and states that in his estimation they have no literary or social value. Although the third complaint adopted the commendable practice of attaching actual copies of the alleged obscene magazines, there is no requirement that alleged obscene literature be attached to a complaint in order to render it sufficient.