Sodomy Case Can Proceed, Judge Says
Norfolk
Virginian-Pilot, October 30, 2003
P.O. Box 449, Norfolk, VA 23501-0449
Fax: 757 446-2051
Email: letters@pilotonline.com
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=61659&ran=230647
By Ellyde Roko, The Virginian-Pilot
VIRGINIA BEACH—A judge ruled Wednesday that the
case against a man accused of soliciting sodomy could proceed, despite a U.S.
Supreme Court decision overturning a Texas law against sodomy.
Joel D. Singson is accused of soliciting sodomy from an undercover officer
in a shopping mall bathroom.
Circuit Judge Edward W. Hanson Jr. said the June Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence
v. Texas applied to sodomy that occurs in private, not sodomy that
takes place in public.
“I feel to rule any other way would be to fly in the face of the Supreme
Court,” Hanson said.
Singson is charged with solicitation to commit a felony. Sodomy is a felony
under Virginia law, although the law does not distinguish between private and
public sodomy.
In August, Singson testified that he had approached an undercover officer
in the bathroom of the Sears store at Pembroke Mall in March.
The officer, Detective Jarvis D. Lynch, testified that the sexual act was
to take place in one of the bathroom stalls. After discussing the act, Lynch
contacted his arrest team via an electronic device and Singson was arrested.
Singson’s attorney, Jennifer T. Stanton, argued Wednesday that the Lawrence
ruling made Virginia’s law against soliciting sodomy void.
But Hanson said the law, as applied in Singson’s case, was
constitutional.
“It is invalidated as to private conduct, but this is public conduct,”
Hanson said. “One can only imagine what would happen if I were to rule the
other way.”
Commonwealth’s Attorney Harvey L. Bryant III said the ruling fit the
facts of the case. “It means that offensive, illegal conduct in public
places will continue to be prosecuted in Virginia Beach,” he said. Similar
cases are pending elsewhere across Virginia, Bryant said.
Bryant also said public solicitation of sodomy continues to be illegal,
regardless of whether the act would take place in public or private.
Singson’s trial is set for Dec. 3. If convicted, Singson could face up to
five years in prison.
But Stanton said the trial likely will not be the end of the process.
“Either way you look at it, whether he’s found guilty or not guilty,
the opposing side will appeal because it’s a case involving a serious legal
shift,” she said.
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