A Virginia man caught taking photos of women's "private areas" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial was doing something "repellant and disturbing"—but not illegal, says a female judge in Virginia. DC Superior Court Judge Juliet McKenna dismissed voyeur charges against Christopher Cleveland of Springfield, Va., who got stopped by US Park Police last year after they spotted him taking photos of women on the steps above him, reports WJLA-TV. Officers found scores of photos of women's crotches and buttocks on his camera and computer, but the judge said that they weren't illegal and that officers had no authority to search his camera, reports the Washington Post.
“This Court finds that no individual clothed and positioned in such a manner in a public area in broad daylight in the presence of countless other individuals could have a reasonable expectation of privacy,” wrote McKenna. What's more, "there is no evidence Mr. Cleveland positioned his camera in any way or employed photographic techniques or illumination, so as to capture images that were not already on public display." In other words: creepy but not criminal. A subway rider in Massachusetts was let off the hook on similar charges. (More Lincoln Memorial stories.)
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