LAKELAND, FL – In a decision handed down Friday, the Second District Court of Appeals overturned the rulings of both county and district courts, which had ruled that lewd acts in strip clubs couldn’t be prosecuted if a law enforcement officer was the only offended party. Ten women in Pasco Country again find themselves facing charges of lewd conduct, which the lower court rulings had dismissed.The case, State v. Farino, has been winding its way through the Florida courts for over two years. In county court, Tampa attorney Luke Lirot, who represented all ten defendants, drew on the Florida Supreme Court’s decision in the 1991 case Schmitt v. State in asserting that undercover law enforcement officers didn’t count as “offended members of the public.” County Judge Marc Salton agreed, and dismissed the case against the 10 women. A panel of circuit judges heard the state’s appeal last year, and upheld Salton’s ruling.
In the interim, local legislators sought to rectify what they saw as an impediment to law enforcement by introducing legislation that specifically included the right of law enforcement officers to testify as an offended party.
For their part, the panel from the Second District found that in order to sustain a charge of lewd conduct, there needn’t be an “offended party” at all. In the context of this case, and the specific laws under which the defendants had been charged, the Second Circuit held that all the state need demonstrate is that the defendants engaged in lewd conduct, which is defined by Florida statutes as “any indecent or obscene act.”
Essentially, the Second Circuit found that the lower court had erred in its application of the law, and that the arguments and conclusions from Schmitt were not applicable in the circumstances of State v. Farino.
In her opinion, Judge Patricia J. Kelly wrote, “the circuit court departed from the essential requirements of law in failing to apply the statutory definition of lewdness and instead applying the definition found in Schmitt. The circuit court’s decision exempts from prosecution individuals whose conduct clearly falls under the statute, resulting in a miscarriage of justice.”
Judge Kelly was joined by Judge Stevan T. Northcutt and Judge Darryl C. Casanueva for a unanimous decision.
