{"id":1821,"date":"2012-07-13T07:42:02","date_gmt":"2012-07-13T07:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/mooning-does-not-land-your-ass-in-jail\/"},"modified":"2020-10-30T20:49:24","modified_gmt":"2020-10-30T20:49:24","slug":"mooning-does-not-land-your-ass-in-jail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/mooning-does-not-land-your-ass-in-jail\/","title":{"rendered":"When mooning does not land your ass in jail for indecent exposure."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This Saturday, thousands of people will flock to the city of Laguna Niguel and participate in the 33rd<\/sup> Annual Mooning of Amtrak. It will be those rare occasions when mooning does not land your ass in jail. \u00a0 Usually, you\u2019ll be in a lot of trouble when you pull your pants down and expose yourself in public. Not only will you be facing an indecent exposure charge, but you\u2019ll be required to register as a sex offender for life if convicted. Moreover, being a registered sex offender subjects you to the very stringent provisions of Jessica\u2019s Law which you can read about\u00a0here<\/a>. Fortunately, showing your cheeks for everyone to see doesn\u2019t automatically make you guilty of indecent exposure\u00a0 California Penal Code Section 314 defines \u201cindecent exposure\u201d as<\/p>\n

Every person who willfully and lewdly<\/strong>, either:<\/p>\n

1. Exposes his person, or the private parts thereof, in any public place, or in any place where there are present other persons to be offended or annoyed thereby; or,<\/p>\n

2.Procures, counsels, or assists any person so to expose himself or take part in any model artist exhibition, or to make any other exhibition of himself to public view, or the view of any number of persons, such as is offensive to decency, or is adapted to excite to vicious or lewd thoughts or acts.<\/p>\n

In the case of In Re Dallas W<\/em>. (2000) 85 Cal. App. 4th<\/sup> 937, the California Court of Appeal held for a person to be convicted under this statute, the defendant must have exposed himself lewdly<\/em><\/strong> by intending to \u201cdirect public attention to his genitals for the purposes of sexual arousal, gratification, or affront<\/span><\/em>.\u201d In that case, a 16 year old boy was walking with his friends on the road and mooned passing traffic twice.\u00a0 Since the lower court only found the defendant bared his body only \u201cto annoy and affront people\u201d and that he \u201cdid not act with sexual intent \u2026 to arouse himself or a third person\u201d, the defendant could not be convicted for indecent exposure. \u00a0It should also be noted that he wasn\u2019t found to pull his pants down for a \u201csexual affront.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

Nonetheless even if you moon people without sexual intent or \u201csexual affront\u201d, the prosecution can still try to prove otherwise and an unsympathetic jury might convict you for doing something stupid even if your actions don\u2019t warrant a indecent exposure conviction. \u00a0\u00a0Moreover, you can still be facing criminal misdemeanor charges for being a nuisance as the court in Dallas<\/em> forewarned.[2]<\/a> However, it\u2019s definitely better to live your life as a nuisance than a registered sex offender.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re seeking legal advice, feel free to contact me here at the Law Offices of Mark A. Gallagher: (800) 797-8406 or email: hans.socaldefense@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"
People participating in Moon Amtrak. Photo: AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> Compare People v. Archer<\/em> (2002) 98 Cal. App. 4th 402. Court ruled defendant guilty of indecent exposure for sticking out his penis and yelling, \u201csuck my dick\u201d, to a female driver in a fit of road rage. Court found defendant\u2019s actions were for purposes of \u201csexual affront.\u201d According to the court\u2019s explanation, \u201caffront\u201d is synonymous for \u201coffend\u201d or \u201cinsult.\u201d Therefore, someone who exposes himself for the purposes of sexually insulting or offending another person is guilty of indecent exposure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

[2]<\/a> See California Penal Code Sections 370 & 372.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Saturday, thousands of people will flock to the city of Laguna Niguel and participate in the 33rd Annual Mooning of Amtrak. It will be those rare occasions when mooning does not land your ass in jail. \u00a0 Usually, you\u2019ll be in a lot of trouble when you pull your pants down and expose yourself…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[282,283,284,285,286],"class_list":["post-1821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-california-criminal-law-blog","tag-indecent-exposure","tag-jessicas-law","tag-moon-amtrak","tag-mooning","tag-section-290"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5561,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1821\/revisions\/5561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.markagallagher.com\/socaldefenselawyers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}