Legal Question in Criminal Law in Virginia

Public Nudity

I was out with some friends at a bar and most of them left before I did. Me and another guy left and were going to be walking to my friend's house (about a 15 minute walk). We were very drunk and stopped behind the bar to urinate. At the same time, the police pulled up and gave us each tickets for public nudity. At first I wondered why we were not cited for public urination but it turns out that Henrico County does not have a urination ordinance. My issue is, I don't do things like this, I am a 23 year old law student with no record (unless a speeding charge counts) and if I am convicted, I will have to put down that I was convicted for public nudity (which sounds so much worse than what happened) for the rest of my life. I don't want the rest of my life defined by this one moment of stupidity that did not hurt anyone. I know it is important to get a lawyer but again, I am a student and can't afford it as I am so deep in loans right now its insane. So will this get dismissed or will I get probation? Is there something specific I should say? Should I plead guilty or does that hurt my chances of getting off? Thanks.


Asked on 4/05/09, 3:21 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
James Bullard James A. Bullard, Jr., P.C.

Re: Public Nudity

You may qualify for a court appointed attorney. If you want to have the charges dismissed you will not want to plead guilty. That said you will need to talk to a lawyer to advise you of how to best handle the case once he knows more about the case. You may consider retaining an attorney it may not be cost prohibitive.

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Answered on 4/05/09, 9:41 pm


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