THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, December 8, 1995 TAG: 9512070136
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN WEINTRAUB AND MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITERS
LENGTH: Medium: 70 lines
The City Council wants the General Assembly's help to catch and convict Peeping Toms.
In its wish list to local legislators, passed this week, the council asked the General Assembly to help it close a legal loophole that has allowed at least 10 accused peepers to go unpunished.
In 1993, the city attorney expanded the city's anti-Peeping Tom ordinance to cover people who peeped within buildings - like public restrooms and locker rooms - in addition to those who peered into buildings from outside.
Students of a martial arts center had to file civil suits when they found peepholes in the walls of the school's tanning room, because under the city law, modeled on a state one, peeping while inside a building wasn't a criminal violation.
In broadening the law beyond the state code, the city picked up the state's legal language that defined a Peeping Tom as anyone who ``secretly or furtively'' peeps or spies.
The trouble came when the Beach police tried to enforce the new law. The defendants may have peered through cracks in public bathroom stalls or looked under or over partitions, but judges agreed with defense attorneys that the peepers couldn't be found guilty because they were brazen.
``Defense attorneys have been very successful in having these cases dismissed on the basis of the secretiveness and furtiveness section,'' Virginia Beach Detective C.J. Tull wrote in a recent memo. ``Therefore, this activity continues to be a problem for us to successfully enforce.''
Deputy City Attorney Randall M. Blow said his office wants to rewrite the law to cover brazen peepers, but is afraid that won't work if the state statute the law is based upon is unchanged. That's why the council has asked the state legislators to change the statute.
``If we had cut that wording out, we would have run the risk of invalidating the entire ordinance,'' Blow said. ``If the state code is amended to delete the terms that have caused the enforcement problem, the city will then be able to amend its local ordinance.''
Other aspects of the legislative package the council approved this week:
The council asked the General Assembly to fix an oversight in a bill passed early this year to change the City Council's makeup. The legislators decided that the seven borough council members should be elected from equally populated districts, rather than the current boroughs, which range in population from 1,000 to 150,000.
But the General Assembly forgot to mention the School Board. Hoping to avoid a system where City Council and School Board members run in differently shaped districts, the council wants the School Board districts reapportioned as well.
The council also asked the General Assembly to give it permission to recreate the position of ``Grand Constable,'' eliminated in the mid-1980s to save money. The city believes it will be eligible for more money from the state if the position is recreated.
The sheriff, who picked up the constable's duties when the job was dismantled, would take the additional title of grand constable. No new staff members would be hired.
The council delayed for one week deciding whether to ask the General Assembly for the power to condemn land for economic development.
The council has hoped to get some additional power to help redevelop the Burton Station neighborhood, next to Norfolk International Airport, but council members have been unable to agree on how much power they need.
KEYWORDS: PEEPING TOM VIRGINIA BEACH CITY COUNCIL by CNB