JUDGE ASKED TO TOSS OUT ANTI-SOLICITING ORDINANCE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 25, 1993                   TAG: 9302250113
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
JUDGE ASKED TO TOSS OUT ANTI-SOLICITING ORDINANCE
Paul Holt, an alleged prostitute who is challenging a Roanoke law used to arrest him and dozens of fellow streetwalkers, took his case to a city courtroom Wednesday.
A city ordinance that makes it illegal to offer sex for sale in public "simply has got to go," said Michael Hart, an attorney appointed to represent Holt. "It's unenforceable."
Hart argued that the ordinance violates state law because it is more restrictive than a similar state law dealing with prostitution. He asked Roanoke Circuit Judge Clifford Weckstein to strike the ordinance, which has been used to make hundreds of prostitution arrests in recent years.
Calling the challenge a "matter of considerable public importance," Weckstein said he will issue a ruling later in writing.
Hart argued that City Council exceeded its power in 1990 when it passed the anti-solicitation ordinance, which makes it a misdemeanor to offer or accept sex for money in public places. The crime carries a maximum punishment of one year in jail.
He said the ordinance is more restrictive than a state law covering similar activity. Specifically, state law requires that for someone to be convicted of prostitution or attempted prostitution, there must be "a substantial act in furtherance" of the offer, such as the exchange of money or preliminary sexual activity.
The city ordinance requires no "substantial act" - in effect allowing people to be convicted based solely on what they say.
Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Wanda DeWease argued that Hart is "trying to mix apples and oranges." She said the state law and city ordinance are different in that conduct covered by the ordinance is "more morally aggravated." The city has a legitimate interest in prohibiting such conduct, she wrote in a court brief.
DeWease also argued that Roanoke City Council is empowered with a broad and general grant of police power, including in her written briefs other cases in which cities drafted ordinances to deal with problems such as massage parlors and dangerous dogs.
Holt, who dresses as a woman and hangs out on Salem Avenue, was arrested last fall along with about 30 other alleged prostitutes. He is the only one to challenge the ordinance; most of the others have pleaded guilty and received suspended jail sentences.
Holt's case is not the first to raise questions about the anti-solicitation ordinance. When it was first passed, the ordinance could be applied to private conversations between consenting adults, and required no mention of money for a conviction.
After gay-rights activists and the American Civil Liberties Union complained that police were using the law to target homosexual men in city parks, council amended the ordinance to make it apply only to sex-for-money deals struck in public.
Since then, the ordinance has been used primarily against prostitutes.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB