Man Faces Rare Adultery Charge in Fargo
Grand
Forks Herald, February 10, 2005
By the Associated Press
FARGO, N.D.—A man is facing trial
next month on an adultery charge, something attorneys say is rare in North
Dakota.
Prosecutors charged Lucius James Penn, 29, of Las Vegas,
with the misdemeanor crime after his wife called Fargo police in August.
Deanna Penn told a detective her husband was having an affair with a
16-year-old girl he had met on the Internet, court records say.
Penn also is charged with felony corruption or
solicitation of a minor. His trial is set to begin March 1.
Penn’s Las Vegas defense attorney, Gabriel Grasso, said
Wednesday he will challenge North Dakota’s adultery law on several grounds,
including privacy rights. An attorney helping with the case, Brian Nelson of
Fargo, said he never heard of a North Dakota prosecutor using the law.
Cass County prosecutors said the felony count is a bigger
problem for Penn.
“Until the Legislature does away with it (adultery) or
until some supreme authority says we can’t do it, it’s a charging option
for every prosecutor,” Assistant State’s Attorney Aaron Birst said.
To file a charge of adultery, state law requires a spouse
to file a complaint within one year of the act. The law grants immunity to
people who disclose affairs during divorce or separation proceedings.
Part of Penn’s defense is that he was working toward a
divorce with his wife when he met the girl in Fargo, Grasso said. The split
will soon be final, he said.
Grasso said Penn, an Air Force engineer, met the girl
online before he was scheduled to spend time at the Grand Forks Air Force
Base.
He said the girl told police the relationship was
consensual.
The woman’s mother, reached Wednesday by The Forum,
said she has spoken to Penn but does not know him well.
“My daughter seems to like him,” she said. “I’m
hoping she gets over that.”
Morton County State’s Attorney Allen Koppy said the
most recent adultery case cited in state documents is from 1925.
Koppy dealt with the issue in the late 1990s, when a
state penitentiary inmate asked that his wife be charged with adultery.
Koppy and his assistants denied the request from Walter
S. Olsen III, arguing that his wife was already facing a felony assault
charge. Prosecutors also questioned Olsen’s motivation and doubted they
could win an adultery conviction before a jury, Koppy said.
After a judge denied Olsen’s request to hire a private
prosecutor, he asked the state Supreme Court to intervene. The justices
declined to do so.
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