[HISTORY: Adopted by the City Council of the City of Lexington as §§ 15-1, 15-2, 15-3, 15-8, 15-9, 15-17, 15-18, 15-19, 15-23, 15-24, 15-25, 15-26, 15-29, 15-30, 15-36, 15-37, 15-38, 15-42, 15-43 and 15-44 of the 1958 Code (§§ 15-1, 15-2, 15-3, 15-8, 15-9, 15-16.1, 15-19, 15-22.1, 15-26, 15-27, 15-28, 15-28.01, 15-28.2, 15-28.3, 15-30, 15-46, 15-47 15-50, 15-51, 15-52, 15-53, 15-54, 15-54.1, 15-56.1, 15-57, 15-58, 15-59, 15-60, 15-61, 15-62 and 15-63 of the 1970 Code). Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Police Department — See Ch. 32.
Alarm systems — See Ch. 105.
Alcoholic beverages — See Ch. 109.
Animals — See Ch. 115.
Curfew — See Ch. 160.
Fireworks — See Ch. 195.
Games of chance — See Ch. 204.
Noise — See Ch. 275.
Obscenity — See Ch. 283.
Weapons — See Ch. 409.
A. 
Generally. If any person shall, in the presence or hearing of another, curse or abuse such person, or use any violent, abusive language to such person concerning himself or any of his female relations, under circumstances reasonably calculated to provide a breach of the peace, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: For similar state law, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-416.
B. 
Cursing over telephone. If any person shall curse or abuse anyone, or use vulgar, profane, threatening or indecent language over any telephone, he shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.[2]
[2]
Editor's Note: For similar state law, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-427.
It shall be unlawful for any person to commit adultery or fornication within the City.
[1]
Editor's Note: For state law as to adultery and fornication, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-344 et seq.
[Amended 2-2-1984]
A. 
A person is guilty of disorderly conduct if, with the intent to cause public inconvenience, annoyance or alarm, or recklessly creating a risk thereof, he:
(1) 
In any street, highway or public building, or while in or on a public conveyance or public place, engages in conduct having a direct tendency to cause acts of violence by the persons at whom, individually, such conduct is directed, provided that such conduct shall not be deemed to include the utterance or display of any words or to include conduct otherwise made punishable under this Code; or
(2) 
Willfully or, being intoxicated, whether willfully or not, disrupts any meeting of the governing body of the City or a division or agency thereof, or of any school, literary society or place of religious worship, if such disruption prevents or interferes with the orderly conduct of such meeting or has a direct tendency to cause acts of violence by the persons at whom, individually, such disruption is directed, provided that such conduct shall not be deemed to include the utterance or display of any words or to include conduct otherwise made punishable under this Code.
B. 
The person in charge of any such building, place, conveyance or meeting may eject therefrom any person who violates any provision of this section, with the aid, if necessary, of any persons who may be called upon for such purpose.
C. 
A person violating any provision of this section shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor, and punishment shall not exceed that prescribed for a Class 1 misdemeanor under state law.
Any person who shall, by signaling, addressing, soliciting, catching hold of or in any way interfering with the free passage of any female person with whom such person is not personally acquainted, for the purpose of inducing her to converse with, accompany or ride with such person, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
[Added 2-2-1984]
Any person who, in any public place or on any private property open to the public, unreasonably or unnecessarily obstructs the free passage of other persons to and from or within such place or property, and who shall fail or refuse to cease such obstruction or move on when requested to do so by the owner or lessee or agent or employee of such owner or lessee, or by a duly authorized law enforcement officer, shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit lawful picketing.
Any person applying for or furnished any lodging at or in any hotel or tourist home within the City who shall use any false or fictitious name or enter, or cause to be entered, any false or fictitious name on any register shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
Any person who shall keep a house of ill fame resorted to for the purpose of prostitution or lewdness and each inmate thereof shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. In a prosecution of this offense the general reputation of such house may be proven in evidence.
[1]
Editor's Note: For state law as to keeping, residing in or frequenting a bawdy place, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-347.
It shall be unlawful for any person to injure or trespass upon any property, real or personal, not his own, whether public or private.
[1]
Editor's Note: For state law as to injuring property generally, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-77 et seq. As to injury to public buildings, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-138. As to injuries to trees and fences in public squares or grounds, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-139. As to trespass after being forbidden to do so, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-119. As to trespass at night upon cemetery, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-125. As to trespass at night upon church or school property, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-128. As to entering property of another for purpose of damaging it, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-121.
[Added 7-2-1987]
A. 
Definitions. For the purposes of this section, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:
LOITER
To stand around or remain in, or to park or remain parked in a motor vehicle at, a public place or place open to the public and to engage in any conduct prohibited under this section. "Loiter" also means to collect, gather, congregate or be a member of a group or a crowd of people who are gathered together in any public place or place open to the public and to engage in any conduct prohibited under this section.
PLACE OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Any place open to the public or any place to which the public is invited and in, on or around any privately owned place of business, private parking lot or private institution, including places of worship, a cemetery or any place of amusement and entertainment, whether or not a charge of admission or entry thereto is made. "Place open to the public" includes the elevator, lobby, halls, corridors and areas open to the public of any store, office or apartment building.
PUBLIC PLACE
Any public street, road or highway, alley, lane, sidewalk, crosswalk or other public way, or any public resort, place of amusement, park, playground, public building or grounds appurtenant thereto, school building or school grounds, public parking lot or any vacant lot.
B. 
Prohibited conduct.
(1) 
It shall be unlawful for any person to loiter at, on or in a public place or place open to the public in such a manner:
(a) 
As to interfere, impede or hinder the free passage of pedestrian or vehicular traffic;
(b) 
As to interfere with, obstruct, harass, curse or threaten or do physical harm to another member of the public;
(c) 
As to threaten or do physical harm to the property of another member of the public; or
(d) 
That, by words, acts or other conduct, it is clear that there is a present danger of a breach of the peace or disorderly conduct.
(2) 
It shall be unlawful for any person to loiter, as defined in Subsection A of this section, at a public place or place open to the public and to fail to obey the direction of a uniformed police officer or the direction of a properly identified police officer not in uniform to move on, when not to obey such direction shall endanger the public peace.
C. 
Identification. It shall be unlawful for any person at a public place or place open to the public to refuse to identify himself by name and address at the request of a uniformed police officer or of a properly identified police officer not in uniform, if the surrounding circumstances are such as to indicate to a reasonable person that the public safety requires such identification.
D. 
Lawful assembly. Nothing in this section shall be construed to prohibit orderly picketing or other lawful assembly.
E. 
Violations. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and punished as provided by law.
[Added 4-1-1977]
Any person who shall, individually or in association with one or more others, wilfully break, injure, tamper with or remove any part or parts of any vehicle, aircraft, boat or vessel for the purpose of injuring, defacing or destroying such vehicle, aircraft, boat or vessel or temporarily or permanently preventing its useful operation or for any purpose against the will or without the consent of the owner of such vehicle, aircraft, boat or vessel or who shall, in any manner, wilfully or maliciously interfere with or prevent the running or operation of such vehicle, aircraft, boat or vessel shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
[Added 4-1-1977]
Any person who shall, without the consent of the owner or person in charge of a vehicle, aircraft, boat, vessel, locomotive or other rolling stock of a railroad, climb into or upon such vehicle, aircraft, boat, vessel, locomotive or other rolling stock of a railroad with intent to commit any crime, malicious mischief or injury thereto or who, while a vehicle, aircraft, boat, vessel, locomotive or other rolling stock of a railroad is at rest and unattended, shall attempt to manipulate any lever, starter, starting crank or other device, brakes or mechanism thereof or to set into motion such vehicle, aircraft, boat, vessel, locomotive or other rolling stock of a railroad with the intent to commit any crime, malicious mischief or injury thereto shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, except that the foregoing provision shall not apply when any such act is done in an emergency or in furtherance of public safety or by or under the direction of a police officer, fireman or other official with a duty to protect the general public welfare in the regulation of traffic or the performance of any other official duty.
A. 
It shall be unlawful for any person over 12 years of age to appear in or upon any of the streets, highways, alleys and public squares of the City in any mask or disguise whereby the identity of such person is concealed, without permission of the Mayor.
B. 
Subsection A shall not be construed to prevent the celebration of Halloween on one night annually on the date recognized for that purpose and Halloween may be so celebrated. Beggar's Night shall not be celebrated by any person, at any time, within the City.
[1]
Editor's Note: For state law as to wearing masks in certain places, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-422.
Any person who shall falsely assume or exercise the functions, powers, duties and privileges incident to the office of sheriff, police officer, marshal or other peace officer, or who shall falsely assume or pretend to be any such officer, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor.
[1]
Editor's Note: For similar state law, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-174.
[Added 11-4-1965]
It shall be unlawful for any person knowingly to give a false report as to the commission of any crime to any sheriff, deputy, member of the state police, police officer or any other law enforcement official with intent to mislead. Violation of the provisions hereof shall be a misdemeanor.
[1]
Editor's Note: For similar state law, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-461.
[Added 11-4-1965]
If any person shall unlawfully enter upon the property of another, in the nighttime, and secretly or furtively peep through or attempt to so peep into or through or spy through a window, door or other aperture of any building, structure or other enclosure of any nature occupied or intended for occupancy as a dwelling, whether or not such building, structure or enclosure is permanently situated or transportable and whether or not such occupancy is permanent or temporary, such person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.
[1]
Editor's Note: For similar state law, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-130.
It shall be unlawful for any person to commit petit larceny within the jurisdiction of the City.
[1]
Editor's Note: For state law as to petit larceny, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-96.
A. 
It shall be unlawful for any person to discard, abandon, leave or allow to remain in any place any refrigerator, icebox or other container, device or equipment of any kind with an interior storage area of more than two cubic feet of clear space, which is airtight, without first removing the doors or hinges from such refrigerator, icebox, container, device or equipment.
B. 
This section shall not apply to any icebox, refrigerator, container, device or equipment which is being used for the purpose for which it was originally designed, or is being used for display purposes by any retail or wholesale merchant, or is crated, strapped or locked to such an extent that it is impossible for a child to obtain access to any airtight compartment thereof.
[1]
Editor's Note: For similar state law, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-319.
It shall be unlawful for any person to resist or impede any officer or employee of the City or any fire police officer in the lawful discharge of his duties.
[1]
Editor's Note: For state law as to impeding peace officer in discharge of duty and as to obstructing or impeding administration of justice in court, see Code of Virginia, § 18.2-460.
A. 
Riots; unlawful assembly; assault; assault and battery; breaches of the peace. It shall be unlawful for any person to be guilty of riot, unlawful assembly, assault, assault and battery, or any offense that amounts to a breach of the peace.
B. 
Specific conduct prohibited. It shall be unlawful and a Class 1 misdemeanor for any person to disturb the peace of others by violent, tumultuous, offensive or obstreperous conduct or by threatening, challenging to fight, assaulting, fighting or striking of another, or by congregating, running and playing on the sidewalk or in the street in such manner as to endanger or intimidate others using such sidewalk or street.
[Added 2-2-1989]
[1]
Editor's Note: For state law as to riots and disorderly conduct, see Code of Virginia, §§ 18.2-404 to 18.2-415.
[Added 6-18-1987]
The provisions of § 18.2-341 of the Code of Virginia[1] (working or transacting business on Sunday) shall have no force or effect in the City, the sense of the citizens having been expressed, as provided in § 15.1-29.5 of the Code of Virginia,[2] that such laws are not necessary in the City.
[1]
Editor's Note: Section 18.2-341 was repealed by Acts 2004, c. 608.
[2]
Editor's Note: Section 15.1-29.5 was repealed by Acts 1997, c. 587.
It shall be unlawful for any person to send any message or communication, written or oral, threatening another with any punishment or deprivation whatsoever.
A. 
The following persons shall be deemed vagrants:
(1) 
All persons who shall unlawfully return to this City after having been legally removed.
(2) 
All persons who are in any way dangerous to the peace and safety of the City.
(3) 
All persons who, not having the wherewithal to maintain themselves and their families, live idly and without employment, and refuse to work for the usual and common wages given to other laborers in the like work in the City.
(4) 
Persons wandering or strolling about in idleness, who are able to work and have no property to support them.
(5) 
Persons leading an idle, immoral or profligate life, who have no property to support them, and who are able to work and do not.
(6) 
All able-bodied persons found begging for a living, or who quit their homes and leave their wives or children without the means of subsistence.
(7) 
All persons who shall come from any place without this City and shall be found loitering and residing herein, and shall follow no labor, trade, occupation or business, and have no visible means of subsistence, and can give no reasonable account of themselves or their business.
(8) 
All persons having a fixed abode who have no visible property to support them, and who live by stealing or by trading or bartering stolen property.
(9) 
All persons who are able to work and who do not work but hire out their minor children and live upon their wages.
B. 
It shall be unlawful for any person to be a vagrant.
It shall be unlawful for any person to use in or connected with his business any weights, measures or weighing or measuring devices which are not true, accurate and correct.
[Added 9-18-1975]
A. 
Generally. Whoever, without authority, with the intention of converting goods or merchandise to his own or another's use without having paid the full purchase price therefor, or of defrauding the owner thereof out of the value of the goods or merchandise, willfully conceals or takes possession of the goods or merchandise of any store or other mercantile establishment, or alters the price tag or other price marking on such goods or merchandise, or transfers the goods from one container to another, or counsels, assists, aids or abets another in the performance of any of the above acts, shall be deemed guilty of larceny and upon conviction thereof shall be punished as provided in Subsection B of this section. The willful concealment of goods or merchandise of any store or other mercantile establishment, while still on the premises thereof, shall be prima facie evidence of an intent to convert and defraud the owner thereof out of the value of the goods or merchandise.
B. 
Penalty.
(1) 
Any person convicted for the first time of an offense under § 18.1-126 of the Code of Virginia[1] or Subsection A of this section, when the value of the goods or merchandise involved in the offense is less than $100, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by a fine of not less than the value of the goods or merchandise involved nor more than $1,000, or by confinement in jail for not less than five days nor more than 12 months, or both.
[1]
Editor's Note: See now Code of Virginia, § 18.2-103.
(2) 
Any person convicted of an offense under § 18.1-126 of the Code of Virginia of 1950, as amended, or Subsection A of this section, when the value of the goods or merchandise involved in the offense is less than $100 and it is alleged in the warrant or information on which he is convicted, and admitted or found by the judge or jury before whom he is tried, that he has been before convicted in the commonwealth for the like offense, regardless of the value of the goods or merchandise involved in the prior conviction, shall be confined in jail not less than 30 days nor more than one year.
C. 
Exemption of merchant from civil liability.
(1) 
A merchant, agent or employee of the merchant who causes the arrest of any person pursuant to the provisions of § 18.1-126 of the Code of Virginia of 1950, as amended, or Subsection A of this section shall not be held civilly liable for unlawful detention, slander, malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, false arrest or assault and battery of the person so arrested, whether such arrest takes place on the premises of the merchant or after close pursuit from such premises by such merchant, his agent or employee, provided that, in causing the arrest of such person, the merchant, agent or employee of the merchant had at the time of such arrest probable cause to believe that the person committed willful concealment of goods or merchandise.
(2) 
As used in this section, "agents of the merchant" shall include attendants in any parking lot owned or leased by the merchant or generally used by customers of the merchant through any contract or agreement between the owner of the parking lot and the merchant.
[Added by Ord. No. 92-11]
Any person urinating in public places not specifically designated as rest rooms or bathrooms shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.