State v. Reaver

In State v. Reaver, (Nov. 1, 1996), 2nd Dist. No. 15679, the accused in an importuning trial had approached two girls, one 13 years old, and stated "if you ever need something or something to grab, you know where I live." He then grabbed his crotch and walked away. The accused in Reaver cited State v. Cooper's (1994) for the proposition that "importuning under R.C. 2907.07(A) requires a solicitation addressed to the child in a form reasonably calculated to cause the child to understand the nature of the request 'and to afford the child an opportunity to consent to the request.'" The court in responding to Reaver's interpretation of Cooper held the following: "We acknowledge the quoted statement from Cooper, supra. Although the author of this opinion was also the author of that opinion, we cannot account for the importation of the additional requirement. It does appear, from the context in which the quoted passage appears in Cooper, that this was the State's construction of the statute with which we were agreeing. In any event, the issue in Cooper was whether the act of requesting a child of eight years to disrobe, combined with the remark 'I've got something to show you,' could reasonably have been expected to be understood by the child as an invitation to engage in sexual activity. We concluded that that would not have been a reasonable expectation with respect to an eight-year old child, although we acknowledged that it might well have that connotation when addressed to an older person. We conclude that a solicitation to engage in sexual activity need not propose immediate consummation to constitute importuning." Id. at P 6.