A BOOK ON U.S. APPLICABLE LAW
Deacon San Nguyen
INDECENT EXPOSURE
Billy was a nice and quiet detainee. He was put in jail just because he was ignorant and a care-free man who was charged of “indecent exposure” in front of a teenager.
Billy, 36 years old, was a single man and a blue collar worker. He and his friend shared a house consisted of two bedrooms. Each had his own room but shared a toilet and a bathroom. Usually, they did not see any problem with sharing facilities in the house because Billy worked at day shift while his friend worked night shift. Every day, after working hours, Billy went home at about 7:00
p.m. or 8:00 p.m. Right at the time stepping into his house, Billy undressed immediately and walked fast to the bathroom to have a bath before he could cook dinner for himself.
One day, after undressed most of his clothes except his t-shirt, Billy heard noise in the bathroom. His friend spoke from the bathroom that he did not work that day, thus, he took a bath later than usual. His friend also told Billy to wait for few more minutes before his friend could finish his bathing. Having no choice, Billy had to wait in the living room, without putting on his pants. Suddenly, Billy remembered that he still hung an underwear and a t-shirt at his back yard. He stood up and hurriedly out to the yard to take his thing, nearly naked. For a long time, Billy believed that nobody lived in his neighborhood. Both houses on his right and his left were empty waiting for a sale. Billy did not notice that in the house on his left, in that evening, some people just took a tour around the house that they intended to buy.
Right after he finished his bath and put on his clothes, a knock came from the door. Billy opened it and saw two policemen standing there. One of the two informed Billy that he had indecently exposed his thing at his back yard about an hour ago. Then the police put a chain on his wrists, took him to a temporary detaining center where they told him that a lady witnessed him exposed his thing to the eyes of a 14 year old girl when they walked around the house.
That night, Billy could not sleep. He was raped horribly by two young detainees. To protect himself, Billy yelled out loudly but nobody came to help. Bill thought that he was nearly dead. Next morning, Bill’s brother pay $1,500.00 to a lawyer and $500.00 bail bond so that Bill could be released waiting for the trial. The lawyer advised Bill to see a psychiatrist to have a confirmation that Bill got problems with mental health in order to receive a light sentence at court. For doing so, Bill had to pay $1,500.00 to a psychiatrist who, later on, confirmed that Bill was healthy and not insane! The reason that made the psychiatrist said that was Bill, a honest man, did not hide anything from the doctor. He told the truth clearly without any hesitation.
Six months later, in a trial, with the confirmation of the psychiatrist and the witnesses (the mother and her 14 year old daughter), regardless the words of honor of the home owner that nobody could see Bill’s thing because of the darkness, The Court gave him a sentence of 10 years in jail because he showed off his thing in front of the eyes of a teenager. If Bill followed the rules of prison well and did not do anything wrong during serving his time, Bill could be free after 5 years.
There was another story similar to the above story: Tu, a Vietnamese student, a sophomore at a college, was penalized with 1 year in probation and 3 months in a Boot Camp because he showed off his thing to a neighbor.
At a weekend party, Tu drank too much. When he needed to go to restroom, he found that the toilet was occupied by someone. Being unable to hold off anymore, Tu ran to back yard and peed on the grass. Unluckily, right at that time, a woman in the neighbor saw it. She called police immediately. Tu was arrested but a judge only gave him a light punishment.
Looking back to Bill’s case, Tu was luckier than Bill even though Bill’s action was quicker than Tu’s case in which, the judge understood that the need of peeing was so great that nobody could hold off and perhaps, the woman who saw it was not a teenager. In the contrary, in Bill’s case, the judge believed that Bill really wanted to show off his thing to the ladies although the action was taken in about a minute or so.
The above two cases tell us that America is the land of Democracy binding by Law. Any action violating the Law happens in this country, even the slightest, intentionally or unintentionally, will be charged in due process.
As a man who has served directly in Federal Judiciary system for many years now, I have opportunities to read many files related with criminals, severe or light cases. I believe in theory of relativity: there is no absolute fair in everything. However, it is alright with us, if we do not expect Law is an absolute fairness. After following the processes of many cases, I learned that if defendants had no money to hire good lawyers, they might be in disadvantaged positions.
Therefore, the best way to live happily in this country is seeking for advices from people who are professional about Law before doing something big or small. Prevention is always better than treatments.
