Back to the Future

["Charles Brown" <CharlesB@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

  2nd man hit with anti-cussing statute

Old law bans swearing in front of women, kids
April 27, 2000


HARRISON -- Another man has been charged under a century-old Michigan law that
prohibits swearing in the presence of women and children.

Clare County prosecutors say Steven Clevenger used vulgar language in earshot 
of high
school students after he was fired from his job as an assistant volleyball 
coach at
Farwell High School.

If convicted of the misdemeanor, Clevenger could face up to three months in 
jail and a
$100 fine.

Clevenger, 20, was a part-time assistant for the girls volleyball team until 
assistant
principal David Beckey and head volleyball coach Angela Paklledinaz fired him 
Jan. 27.

The sports management student at Central Michigan University was fired because 
he made
his players run extra laps during practice, said Clevenger's lawyer, William 
Street.

"He was also let go for his rudeness and behavior with the student athletes," 
Street
was quoted as saying in the Saginaw News for a report Wednesday.

When the principal and coach told Clevenger he was fired, he became upset and 
started
using vulgar and offensive language, police said.

Despite a request to refrain from cussing, Clevenger continued to do so while an
office door was open to students, they said.

Clevenger, of Kodiak, Alaska, told authorities that the cursing occurred behind 
closed
doors.

Street is the lawyer who represented Timothy Boomer when he was charged with 
the same
offense in 1998. An Arenac County sheriff's deputy ticketed Boomer, 26, after he
cussed when he fell out of a canoe on the Rifle River.

A jury convicted Boomer, a Roseville computer programmer, last June. District 
Judge
Allen Yenior sentenced him to four days of community service in a child-care 
program
and a $75 fine. The case is on appeal.

Street says the 103-year-old law violates the First Amendment. It says "any 
person who
shall use any indecent, immoral, obscene, vulgar or insulting language in the 
presence
or hearing of any woman or child shall be guilty of a misdemeanor."

Arenac County Circuit Judge Ronald Bergeron affirmed Boomer's conviction and 
upheld
the constitutionality of the law in February.

Street, of the American Civil Liberties Union, has asked the Michigan Court of 
Appeals
to take the Boomer case.

One of the key legal issues is whether the expletives convey a coherent message 
or
belief.

Clevenger is scheduled to appear for a hearing Wednesday before District Judge 
Gary
Allen.