NudstRalph
07-17-2007, 04:38 PM
http://www.knbc.com/news/13692888/detail.html
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. -- The Huntington Beach City Council voted 7-0 Monday night to give initial approval to an ordinance outlawing public nudity.
Currently, public nudity, absent behavior indicating it was done for sexual gratification, is not specifically banned.
According to an analysis by city staff, a person "walking naked on a public street, who was not displaying behavior indicating sexual gratification, would not be violating state law or city ordinance."
The proposed ordinance was crafted in response to a "naturalist" living in the downtown area, according to the staff report.
The man, identified as Michael Ferreira by the Orange County Register, stood naked either in his front yard or the threshold of his residence, in full view of the public walking on the sidewalk, according to the report.
Often he had a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other, and waved to passersby, the newspaper reported.
Because the behavior did not include an overt element of sexual gratification, police were limited to taking reports and submitting them to the Orange County District Attorney's Office for filing of charges.
The District Attorney's Office declined to file charges in several instances, said spokeswoman Farrah Emami, but did file felony charges in connection with alleged indecent exposures last Aug. 23 and Sept. 6 in which the office believes the required sexual gratification element "can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt."
The counts against Ferreira, which are felonies based on a previous indecent exposure conviction in a 1995 case, are set for a preliminary hearing next Monday in the West Justice Center, Emami said.
The proposal makes it unlawful for any person over nine years old to among other things, "appear, bathe, sunbathe, walk or be on any public park, playground, beach or in the water adjacent thereto" in such a manner as to expose his or her genitals, pubic hair or other private areas, according to the ordinance.
Violations of the ordinance would be a misdemeanor, punishable by six months in jail and/or a $500 fine.
Allen Baylis, Ferreira's attorney and a director of the Naturist Action Committee, could not be reached for immediate comment. However, he told the Register that the proposed law would infringe on Ferreira's constitutional rights.
"I don't think we should be in the business of prohibiting something just because it offends some people," he said. "Where do you draw the line on that?"
Ferreira, 42, no longer lives in Huntington Beach, said Laurie Payne, a city spokeswoman.
Former neighbor Dawn Melton told the Register that Ferreira was often in the nude.
"We called him the naked man," she said.
The proposal will receive a second reading on Aug. 6. If it is approved again, as expected, it would become law 30 days later.
About half of Orange County's 34 cities have approved similar bans on public nudity, the newspaper reported.
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. -- The Huntington Beach City Council voted 7-0 Monday night to give initial approval to an ordinance outlawing public nudity.
Currently, public nudity, absent behavior indicating it was done for sexual gratification, is not specifically banned.
According to an analysis by city staff, a person "walking naked on a public street, who was not displaying behavior indicating sexual gratification, would not be violating state law or city ordinance."
The proposed ordinance was crafted in response to a "naturalist" living in the downtown area, according to the staff report.
The man, identified as Michael Ferreira by the Orange County Register, stood naked either in his front yard or the threshold of his residence, in full view of the public walking on the sidewalk, according to the report.
Often he had a cigarette in one hand and a beer in the other, and waved to passersby, the newspaper reported.
Because the behavior did not include an overt element of sexual gratification, police were limited to taking reports and submitting them to the Orange County District Attorney's Office for filing of charges.
The District Attorney's Office declined to file charges in several instances, said spokeswoman Farrah Emami, but did file felony charges in connection with alleged indecent exposures last Aug. 23 and Sept. 6 in which the office believes the required sexual gratification element "can be proved beyond a reasonable doubt."
The counts against Ferreira, which are felonies based on a previous indecent exposure conviction in a 1995 case, are set for a preliminary hearing next Monday in the West Justice Center, Emami said.
The proposal makes it unlawful for any person over nine years old to among other things, "appear, bathe, sunbathe, walk or be on any public park, playground, beach or in the water adjacent thereto" in such a manner as to expose his or her genitals, pubic hair or other private areas, according to the ordinance.
Violations of the ordinance would be a misdemeanor, punishable by six months in jail and/or a $500 fine.
Allen Baylis, Ferreira's attorney and a director of the Naturist Action Committee, could not be reached for immediate comment. However, he told the Register that the proposed law would infringe on Ferreira's constitutional rights.
"I don't think we should be in the business of prohibiting something just because it offends some people," he said. "Where do you draw the line on that?"
Ferreira, 42, no longer lives in Huntington Beach, said Laurie Payne, a city spokeswoman.
Former neighbor Dawn Melton told the Register that Ferreira was often in the nude.
"We called him the naked man," she said.
The proposal will receive a second reading on Aug. 6. If it is approved again, as expected, it would become law 30 days later.
About half of Orange County's 34 cities have approved similar bans on public nudity, the newspaper reported.