Is having sex and/or oral sez in a car considered public?

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Short answer: Depends where the car is located. If in a public place, illegal; private place, legal.

In California, the crime of lewd conduct, Penal Code 647(a), occurs when the alleged "lewd conduct" occurs in a place opem to the public or and whether it is in a place open to the public or a place in public view.

Having sex in your car (or someone else's) in a public parking lot is therefore a crime, as is having sex in a car in your own, private driveway -- if that driveway is open to public view.

The "grey area" is having sex in a car in a secluded area. There are cases that can be argued either way on that issue. But this argument would occur only after your encounter with --- and almost certain arrest by -- law enforcement. Their argument, essentially: If I caught them having sex in a car, how private a place could it have been? I have seen cases go both ways, depending on the particular facts and judge. So this is only really a back up position, not a premeditated course of action.

In summary, if you are observed in a car with your top down under a street light on a public street, you will be arrested (and most likely convicted!); if you are in your car in your garage, you should be fine. But that kind of begs the question.

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Without putting too fine a point on this, I feel compelled to add: A car is not a public place, but generally, to the extent its interior is visible, it is a place open to public view. Of course, conduct considered by the state to be a crime has to actually be viewed.

Further, in large part because of their mobility and use of public roadways, cars enjoy substantially less consitutional protection than homes. Searches on no more than a hunch are all too common.

Law enforcement can usually find (or manufacture) "reasonable suspicion" to further investigate what is going on in an autpmobile. This can be as little as a car being parked in a cruisy area.

Hope this clarifies the issue a bit more.

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I was arrested for having sex in a car in a public place. My accomplice and I both denied that anything happened. We were still hauled in for it.

The funny part... nothing was actually happening. Took a week of hell to clear it up, but I ended up getting off as their was actually no crime

I suspect the cops wanted me to admit to something, which might have happened just because of pure fear, had something actually happened.

I did get a nice ride in cuffs and a very fun perp walk out of it.

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