Majority
p. 202COURT OF SPECIAL SESSIONS — CITY OF NEW YORK —APPELLATE TERM —SECOND JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT. ' December 12, 1922. THE PEOPLE v. JOHN WORTH, LESTER EMMETT AND ROBERT EMMETT. Before Hon. John J. Freschi, Justice Presiding; Hon. James J. McInerney, and Hon. Clarence Edwards, Associate Justices.
Headnote
Disorderly conduct — Nude bathing.Defendants were charged with disrobing on an open beach. The evidence was that they took off their clothes in a secluded spot and went in swimming in trunks or bathing suits from private property — remote from the highway or the nearest house. JSeld, that this was not disorderly conduct tending to a breach of the peace.
Lester Emmett, for appellants.
Dana Wallace, District Attorney (Joseph Lonardo, of counsel), for respondents.
Appeal from judgment rendered August 17, 1922, in the Fourth District City Magistrate’s Court of the City of New York, Borough of Queens, adjudging the defendants guilty of disorderly conduct, tending to a breach of the peace, and imposing a fine of ten dollars each.
The complaint in this case substantially charges the defendants with the offense of disrobing on an open beach. It appears from all the evidence in the case that what the defendants actually did was to take off their clothes in a secluded spot and
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to go in swimming in trunks or bathing suits, in a place which was private property and remote from any public highway and a considerable distance from the nearest dwelling, being a farm house, in the neighborhood.
We do not think that the evidence returned establishes the facts charged in the complaint or any disorderly conduct tending to a breach of the peace by the defendants.
Judgment of conviction reversed on the facts, complaint dismissed, defendants discharged and the fines paid by the several appellants ordered to be returned to them respectively. (All concur.)