Lawyers for Quincy House Two File Motions to Dismiss Case

Lawyers for the two Quincy House juniors arrested in May for showing "Deep Throat" yesterday filed a series of motions in state court seeking dismissal of the case.

The motions, which will be heard Tuesday in Middlesex Courthouse in East Cambridge, contend that since a Superior Court justice ruled before the screening that the film was not obscene the pair cannot be prosecuted.

Charge

State police arrested Carl Stork '81 and Nathan Hagen '81, co-presidents of the Quincy House Film Society, in late May after they showed the X-rated movie to a dining hall audience, and charged them with "knowingly disseminating obscenity."

In a civil action earlier that day, Superior Court Judge Charles Alberti refused to stop the showing, and ruled, after viewing the movie, that the film was not obscene under state statutes.

But the county district attorney's office arrested Stork and Hagen on criminal charges and confiscated the print of the film. A grand jury indicted the pair four days later.

"Prosecution of the Defendant upon this Indictment is barred... in that a justice of the Superior Court department for Middlesex determined prior to the showing that the film was not obscene." Kenneth Tatarian, Hagen's attorney, argues in the motions submitted yesterday.

The motion also contends that the state obscenity statues are "overbroad" and accuses the district attorney prosecuting the case of "improper conduct" before the grand jury.

The motion says the prosecutor "misstated to the grand jurors of an exculpatory nature," and "attempted to lead and did lead the Grand Jury to indict the defendant in an improper manner."

Laurence Hardoon the assistant district attorney prosecuting the case, refused comment yesterday.

Lawyers for the pair decided to file the dismissal motions after a federal court judge last month refused to stop the prosecutions.

In a preliminary ruling, Judge W. Arthur Garrity said he was not convinced the prosecutor had acted "in bad faith" by pursuing the prosecution.

He added, however, that he could "not understand" how the pair could be convicted of "knowingly disseminating obscene matter" in light of Alberti's ruling prior to the showing.

Garrity's statement will be used Tuesday when the dismissal motion is heard, Alan M. Dershowitz, professor of Law and Stork's lawyer, said yesterday.

If convicted, the two students face five years in jail each. In addition, Stork, a citizen of Germany, could face deportation.

Should the case go to trial, it would probably be delayed until next fall when student witnesses return to the area