State v. Leach

The defendant upon trial by jury was convicted of the crime of attempting to procure a person to en*155gage in prostitution in violation of ORS 167.125.① The state concedes② that the only evidence to support the charge was as follows: the defendant walked up to a woman in a shopping center and asked her whether she would perform a sexual act for $25.

As the state further concedes, such conduct, no matter how reprehensible, does not violate ORS 167.125. This is a pandering statute. The great weight of authority holds that the pandering statutes are not violated when, as here, one merely obtains or…