Lewdness and the modern age – should ‘mens rea’ come into play.
The Coronavirus changed the way many of us do business. Since face-to-face meetings have largely been suspended for the past six months, our conference rooms have gone virtual with platforms such as Zoom enabling people to attend meetings from the “privacy” of their own homes.
But sometimes user error can produce some embarrassing (and potentially criminal) results. Take the case of New Yorker magazine journalist and CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, who didn’t realize the camera was still on as he thought he left a meeting with fellow New Yorker co-workers and decided to masturbate, displaying the act to all in attendance.
Florida Statutes Chapter 800 – “Lewdness; Indecent Exposure“, could establish what happened to Mr. Toobin (note, we say “what happened to Mr. Toobin” and not “what Mr. Toobin did) as a crime. Potentially it would be a crime in every state in which one of the attendees of that virtual meeting lived. Since it used the internet which is a means of “interstate commerce”, it could expose (no pun intended) Mr. Toobin to federal prosecution as well. At the federal level, the distribution of obscene material could violate the statutes prohibiting the use of the U.S. Mails, common carriers, or interactive computer services for the purpose of transportation (See 18 U.S.C. §1460-§1463) of obscene material. And if a minor had been in viewing distance of the screen… that’d be the end of it!
“Mens Rea” is the legal principle that intention or knowledge of wrongdoing constitutes part of a crime. Unfortunately, lack of knowledge or intent makes no difference when it comes to most sexual offenses, or even registration violations, as they are strict liability. Mr. Toobin’s lack of knowledge that his camera was still turned on and that his co-workers were able to see him is like saying, “but officer, she told me she was 19”. It doesn’t matter.
Currently – the media seems divided. One CNN colleague referred to Toobin’s conduct as an accident, for which in turn, he was blasted by others who said that masturbating on a work video conference at which women were present isn’t an “accident” and the only accident was that he got caught. Whatever the case, whether you consider “it” to be a mistake or a sexual assault, it will be curious to see whether Jeffrey Toobin’s act is going to lead to his firing or criminal charges brought against him. Hopefully it will make people realize that “it” can happen to anybody.
I was on a video conference call yesterday. When the conference call ended, one of my co-workers forgot to turn off the audio.
Listeners could clearly hear sounds of somebody in the kitchen cooking breakfast. Fortunately, that’s all there was and the person realized the sound was still on and quickly turned it off. I’m glad it was nothing more exciting than someone making breakfast!
So, yeah, it could happen to anyone!
A random guy not understanding technology or regularly dealing with video conferences could be excused for making that mistake. Nor was he an American Pie character.
He was no novice to web conferences and it’s a mute issue or whether women or children were “present.”
Since he works for CNN no bad publicity will be made to larger public and he’ll get a nice little pass while most of us get the book thrown at us for less harmful computer crimes.
I don’t have any opinion about Toobin as a person. Don’t know him.
However, I’m on audio and/or video meetings every day. I’ve accidentally been un-muted before. Heck, I’ve been sharing my computer screen with all meeting attendees, the meeting ended, and I’ve left that going. Stuff happens. If you have 1,000 meetings, you’ll make a mistake in a few.
Beyond that, how is “women” or “children” relevant in any way? Perhaps we should replace that with “person”. As a man, why would I be any less offended or harmed than a woman or a child? F that. I reserve the right to be equally offended.
Having said that, I say BFD about the whole thing. Very likely it was all adults on the meeting. They likely weren’t exactly traumatized. If they were offended, perhaps they should grow up and find some important things to focus on. I think if this happened among my business associates that we would let the person know ASAP (to end it) and just continue on with our lives. Even if we had to end the meeting and re-schedule it. Stuff happens.
Your comment about CNN is not sensible. The public knows all about this. They can spread the story as far and wide as they like. Plenty of people hate CNN and would love nothing more than to bash them.
Here’s a question!?!?!?. Since it’s a VIDEO CALL, Can’t ANYONE simply TURN OFF THEIR COMPUTER if they don’t want to see what’s playing on it??????. I mean “Damn”!!!!!!. Since they “Chose to watch” this guy “Relieve Stress”, Can’t, Shouldn’t they be charged with a crime?? Everyone is focused on him!! What happened to “Not watching” something that offends you????????. I change channels when I don’t like what’s playing!!! I HANG UP when I don’t like the conversation on the phone!!! Bottom line is, If they didn’t like what’s on a video, They should of simply TURNED IT OFF!! Nobody forced them to watch anything!!!.
That’s like suggesting people turn off Howard Stern back when he was on regular radio. Nope! They’d rather tune in and then complain about what they heard. And we allow this “sensitivity” to keep creeping into our society. “Oh, my poor feelings!”
I hope the SOB gets forced to register as a sex offender so he can get a taste of what it’s like to be considered a “predator” and “child molester” even tho no such crime occurred. Let him get a taste of what it’s like to be lumped into a basket. Then he can go tell his former colleagues how people think “indecent exposure” somehow means you exposed yourself to a kid. Many average people who don’t watch the fake news of CNN don’t even know who this man is and many will forget about him and his actual actions by the time he has to register. He’ll just be another “child molester” living in a neighborhood who gets harassed and forced to move. No one will remember and newcomers to the SOR website will not give a crap that he was a journalist that got caught masturbating on a live Zoom call full of adults.
It doesn’t matter if there was intent or not, it doesn’t even matter if they got the right house, or even the right state, as long as they get someone with charges, they get their pay raise. All about the cash bonus, for catching the bad guy, even if he is not the right person, in the right state. This system is evil
To call something like that a sexual assault is quite a bit overreaching. Strikes me as the first step to outlawing masturbation, reasoning that you are assaulting whoever you are thinking about when you do it. SO legislation is nearing the point of criminalizing thoughts, which will certainly spread to everything else. Beware the tyranny of the offended.
Annoying or disturbing it may have been, no one was physically harmed in any way. Anyone who is uncomfortable around him as a result are free to not associate with him. People in general need to stop being so damn sensitive.