Court Opinion

ID: 9772158
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:08:58.155844+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:42:26.543178
License: Public Domain

WELLIVER, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent.
What dire offense from amorous causes springs,
What mighty contests rise from trivial things!
The Rape of the Lock, by Alexander Pope.
Just as the theft of a lock of hair created pandemonium in Pope’s poem, today a slight touch through layers of clothing has loosed great ideas and great minds. From the mountain, which I perceive to be a molehill, the principal opinion speaks on the mighty issues of jurisprudence and constitutional law raised primarily by respondent’s friends. I fear that respondent is *514more hurt than helped by his friends, the amici,1 who I believe are more interested in establishing constitutional protection for homosexuals than in securing the freedom of this individual who is the victim of a woefully insufficient information.
Confronted with a case involving a charge of attempted sexual misconduct, I would turn first to the statutes involved to determine if the facts pled in the information constitute a crime.2 The general attempt statute requires the criminal attemptor to intend to commit a crime and, in addition, he must commit an “act which is a substantial step towards the commission of the offense.” § 564.011.1, RSMo 1978 (emphasis added). Without a strict requirement of an overt act, we run the risk of punishing men for mere accidental touchings based upon an officer’s translation of a glimmer in the toucher’s eye.
The simple touch of a fully clothed man is not sufficiently unambiguous to equal “conduct which is strongly corroborative of the firmness of the actor’s purpose to complete the commission of the offense.” § 564.011.1, RSMo 1978 (emphasis added). I would not sanction the arrest for attempted sexual misconduct of quarterbacks or wrestlers, nor can I approve the arrest of respondent on this flimsy information. The overt act alleged in this information may be as harmless as a wink or a leer. In this case, the policeman set the hook too soon.
I would affirm the trial court.

. American Civil Liberties Union of Eastern Missouri, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc., Missouri State National Organization for Women, Federation of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, The Agape Church of St. Louis, St. Louis Lesbian and Gay Pride Celebration Committee, St. Louis Gay Men’s Support Group, and Washington University Gay and Lesbian Community Alliance.

. Attempt. — 1. A person is guilty of attempt to commit an offense when, with the purpose of committing the offense, he does any act which is a substantial step towards the commission of the offense. A “substantial step" is conduct which is strongly corroborative of the firmness of the actor’s purpose to complete the commission of the offense.
§ 564.011, RSMo 1978.