An Oregon judge has ruled that a 61-year-old man did nothing illegal when he crouched in the aisle of a Target store and snapped photos up a 13-year-old’s skirt.
It was lewd and appalling, but not outlawed, Washington County Judge Eric Butterfield said.
“From a legal point of view, which unfortunately today is my job to enforce, he didn’t do anything wrong,” the judge said Thursday.
Patrick Buono of Portland didn’t dispute using his cellphone to take upskirt photos on Jan. 3 at the store in suburban Beaverton, The Oregonian reported.
But his defense lawyer, Mark Lawrence, argued Buono didn’t violate the laws against invasion of privacy and attempted encouraging child sexual abuse, a child pornography count.
The privacy law bans clandestine photography in bathrooms, locker rooms, dressing rooms and tanning booths, but the Target aisle was plainly public, Lawrence said.[…]
As for the charge related to child sex abuse, Lawrence said, the girl was not engaging in sexual conduct, which that statute specifies.
Maloney said Buono took the photos hoping they would be explicit.
Butterfield said the teenager’s private parts were covered, and her conduct was not sexual.
For his part, Judge Butterfield repeatedly spoke about how upset the decision made him, and the problem here is that current laws do not seem to allow for Buono to be charged with a crime. If Oregon legislators have any sense in them at all, they’ll be working to remedy this miscarriage of justice already — but, then again, this is Oregon, one of the most liberal states in the country, so common sense is obviously in short supply around there.