Exciting enhancements are coming soon to eCode360! Learn more 🡪
City of Aberdeen, MD
Harford County
By using eCode360 you agree to be legally bound by the Terms of Use. If you do not agree to the Terms of Use, please do not use eCode360.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Code
New Laws (11) Index Notes (1)
[HISTORY: Articles I through II adopted by the Commissioners of the Town of Aberdeen (now Mayor and Council of the City of Aberdeen) as indicated in article histories. Subsequent articles adopted by the Mayor and Council of the City of Aberdeen as indicated in article histories. Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Alarms — See Ch. 190.
Animals — See Ch. 196.
Curfew — See Ch. 227.
Firearms — See Ch. 263.
Littering — See Ch. 344.
Loitering — See Ch. 354.
Nuisances — See Ch. 391.
Parades and assemblies — See Ch. 402.
[Adopted 10-18-1976 by Ord. No. 241 (Ch. 103, Art. I of the 1990 Code)]
This article may be referred to or cited as the "Aberdeen Public Lewdness Ordinance."
The Mayor and Council have determined that the health, safety, morals and welfare of the community are in danger from an increase in the occurrence of activities constituting lewdness or obscenity contrary to accepted community standards and that only by the enactment of local legislation can an unhealthy and detrimental trend be halted and reversed.
A. 
Words or phrases in this article not defined hereunder shall have their ordinary and common meanings, unless the context requires another connotation.
B. 
For the purposes of this article, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings stated, unless otherwise modified:
DEPICT
Exhibit or show by film picture, photograph, electronic reproduction, model or pictorial advertisement or poster. It shall not include situations where the offending material cannot be observed without first opening a cover or removing it from cover, when the nature of the covered material would be apparent to a reasonable adult.
DISPLAY
To put in view, whether openly or under transparent or translucent cover permitting unmistakable discernment of the object covered.
ELIMINATIVE ACTIVITY
Urination or defecation.
LEWDNESS
Obscenity or indecency with respect to erotic, sexual or eliminative activity.
OBSCENE MANNER
Conduct or depiction of an erotic, sexual or eliminative activity or thing which would constitute lewdness.
PAY
Money, property or other valuable consideration or compensation.
PLACE OF PUBLIC ACCESS
Any publicly owned building, any church, meeting hall or lodge hall, any place in which the public can be expected to enter without first requesting admission or obtaining an invitation or any place of business or club requiring a trader's or liquor license to operate or charging an admission or cover charge. It shall not include rest room facilities, sleeping quarters, changing rooms, medical examining rooms or any private quarters in such places to which the public or patrons would not be expected to enter without first requesting admission or receiving an invitation, nor shall it include any assembly rooms not open to the public of a private organization which is tax exempt under the Internal Revenue Code.
PRIVATE PARTS
Human genitalia, pubic hair, anuses, clefts of the buttocks or female breast distal to and including the areola.
PUBLIC PLACE
Any place within the corporate limits of Aberdeen, whether on or over public or private lands, in which an activity or thing may be viewed by the unaided human eye or heard by the unaided human ear from a public street or way or from any nearby property by a person occupying or traversing such street, way or property in an ordinary and usual fashion. It specifically shall include any part of private property which is open to such public view through a window, door or otherwise.
SEXUAL ACTIVITY
Sexual or anal intercourse, masturbation, fellatio, cunnilingus or the fondling of the buttocks, anus, breast or genitalia of oneself or another or sexual stimulation by means of contact with animals or inanimate objects. The fact that bodily parts are covered by clothing or otherwise shall not be held to exclude an activity from this definition, where it is clear that sexual stimulation is intended.
SIMULATED
The representation of an activity by mimicry, gesture or bodily movement in a manner that would clearly and unmistakably convey to a reasonable adult that such activity is intended to be represented thereby. The fact that bodily parts are covered by clothing or otherwise shall not prevent any activity from being held to have been simulated because the activity itself requires the absence or removal of such covering.
UNWILLING WITNESS
(1) 
A person of 18 years of age and upwards, lawfully and properly present in a place, who would not reasonably expect to encounter, hear or observe the activity or thing in question in that place, without having first consented thereto.
(2) 
Any person under the age of 18 years lawfully and properly present in a place where a reasonable adult would not reasonably expect to encounter, hear or observe the activity or thing in question in that place, without having first consented thereto, regardless of whether such person has consented, except that a person under the age of 18 years shall not be considered an unwilling witness where the activity in question is personally performed in his or her presence and with his or her consent by a person of an age not exceeding by four years the age of the witness. No person under the age of three years or no person living in the same household as or the child, stepchild or ward of an accused person shall be held to be an unwilling witness.
No person shall knowingly or intentionally engage in or direct another person in his employ or under his direction, supervision or control, including children or wards, to engage in any actual or simulated sexual or eliminative activity or the display of his or her private parts or the depiction of actual or simulated sexual or eliminative activity or of private parts in an obscene manner in a public place or place of public access or in any place, private or public, for pay or in the presence of or to an unwilling witness.
[Amended 4-9-1990 by Ord. No. 358-90]
A violation of this article is deemed to be a misdemeanor. Any person who violates any provision of this article shall, upon conviction thereof, be subject to a fine not to exceed $1,000 or imprisonment for a term of not to exceed six months, or both. Each twenty-four-hour period in which a violation occurs shall constitute a separate offense.
[Adopted 11-28-1977 by Ord. No. 248 (Ch. 103, Art. II of the 1990 Code)]
For the purposes of this article, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
OBSCENE PERFORMANCE, EXHIBITION, DRAMA, PLAY, SHOW, DANCING EXHIBITION, TABLEAU OR ENTERTAINMENT
One which the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest and which, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value and where, in a patently offensive way, it conveys to the observer sexual conduct:
A. 
As specifically defined in any statute of Maryland proscribing obscenity or obscene performances; or
B. 
As specifically defined as follows, whether actual or simulated: sexual or anal intercourse, masturbation, fellatio, cunnilingus or the fondling of the buttocks, anus, breasts or genitalia of oneself or another or sexual stimulation by means of contact with animals or inanimate objects or urination or defecation.
SIMULATED
The representation of an activity by mimicry, gesture or bodily movement in a manner that would clearly and unmistakably convey to an average adult that such activity is intended to be represented thereby.
Any person who, as actor, dancer, owner, manager, producer, director or agent or in any other capacity, prepares, gives, directs, presents, performs or participates in any obscene performance, exhibition, drama, play, show, dancing exhibition, tableau or entertainment in which live persons perform or participate in an obscene manner in the presence of any other person or persons who have paid a consideration of any type whatsoever to observe the exhibition or performance and every owner, lessee or manager of any theater, garden, building, room, place or structure who knowingly permits the same to be used for the purpose of any such exhibition as enumerated in this section or who assents to its use for any such purpose shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined or imprisoned as provided hereafter.
[Amended 8-8-1983; 4-9-1990 by Ord. No. 358-90]
A violation of this article is deemed to be a misdemeanor. Any person who violates any provision of this article shall, upon conviction thereof, be subject to a fine not to exceed $1,000 or imprisonment for a term of not to exceed six months, or both. Each twenty-four-hour period in which a violation occurs shall constitute a separate offense.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: Former Art. III, Fortune-Telling, adopted by the Commissioners of the Town of Aberdeen (now Mayor and Council of the City of Aberdeen) 1-22-1979 by Ord. No. 261 (Ch. 103, Art. III of the 1990 Code), as amended, was repealed 2-14-2011 by Ord. No. 11-O-01; see now § 235-39.1, Fortune-telling.