[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.
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.