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Los Angeles Lewd Conduct Defense Attorneys

California Law: Engaging in Lewd Conduct

California Penal Code 647 (a)

Lewd conduct law in California is defined in Penal Code Section 647(a). Section 647(a) describes two types of lewd conduct offenses: engaging in lewd conduct, and soliciting another to engage in lewd conduct.

Below is the California Judicial Council's jury instruction defining the first of these, engaging in lewd conduct:

The defendant is charged with engaging in lewd conduct in public.

To prove that the defendant is guilty of lewd conduct under Penal Code 647(a), the People must prove that:

1. The defendant willfully engaged in the touching of his own or another person's genitals, buttocks, or female breast;

2. The defendant did so with the intent to sexually arouse or gratify himself or another person, or to annoy or offend another person;

3. At the time the defendant engaged in the conduct, he was in a public place or a place open to the public or to public view;

4. At the time the defendant engaged in the conduct, someone else who might have been offended was present;

AND

5. The defendant knew or reasonably should have known that another person who might have been offended by his conduct was present.

As used here, a public place is a place that is open and accessible to anyone who wishes to go there.

RELATED ISSUES

Prosecutor Need Not Prove Someone Was Offended to Make Lewd Conduct Charge

"It is not the burden of the prosecution to prove that the observer was in fact offended by the conduct but only that the [lewd] conduct was such that defendant should know that the observer 'may be offended.'"

Lewd Conduct Statute Does Not Apply to Live Theater Performance

"It seems evident from the foregoing that the vagrancy law, Penal Code section 647, subdivision (a), was not intended to apply to live performances in a theater before an audience.'"