Public nudity likely banned

The City Council has voted to ban public nudity in the city, following police chief Kenneth Small’s request for such a law because of complaints about a former downtown Huntington Beach resident.

But naturists, who showed up to the Monday meeting in force, said they were unfairly targeted for their clothing-optional lifestyle.

It turns out nudity has been legal in Huntington Beach all along. The state’s indecent exposure law only bans nudity with a sexual component, Small told the council. That has made prosecuting the former resident difficult despite a major public nuisance, he added, though the man was ultimately charged with indecent exposure after more than a year of complaints.

Most of the 13 people who spoke on the issue opposed the measure, saying it would let people hassle them for their way of life and that actual lewd conduct was already illegal. Council members received 66 e-mails and letters from naturists worldwide who opposed the ordinance.

Contrary to rumors abounding before the meeting, all the law’s opponents were fully clothed.

“Most naturists seek not to offend people,” said Tony Wilkinson, at the meeting. “I worry terribly about the unintended consequences of this ordinance.”

But Small said opponents didn’t have all the facts. The man who spurred the ordinance was in the heart of downtown, spooking teenage girls and tourists and drawing hundreds of complaints with his aggressive public nudity and hip-shaking on his property, just inches from the sidewalk.

“I can’t believe any legitimate person in the naturist community would support the conduct of what this person was doing,” Small said. “I think they would be shocked by his trying to cloak himself as a naturist to avoid prosecution.”

The ordinance, based on similar rules in Newport Beach and other Orange County cities, did not pass as originally proposed.

An exception for nursing mothers lost its two year age limit for the child; Councilwoman Debbie Cook said she did not want to dictate how long women were allowed to breastfeed their children.

Council members also struck down a section banning the display of any “device, costume or covering” that simulates breasts or genitalia, calling it irrelevant to the problem at hand.

Those cited for public nudity could be fined or arrested on a misdemeanor in more serious circumstances, but would not be forced to register as a sex offender, said City Attorney Jennifer McGrath.

Michael Angelo Ferreira, the man who sparked the city action, no longer lives in Huntington Beach, said his lawyer, Allen Baylis. Baylis is also a board member of the Naturist Action Network and spoke against the ban at the meeting.

“Such laws only serve to further erode citizens’ liberty and pursuit of happiness,” he told the council. “They not only target an individual naturist, but naturism as a creed.”

He declined to comment on Baylis’ pending indecent exposure case.

Police submitted several indecent exposure cases against Ferreira to the Orange County District Attorney, but the DA declined to prosecute in all but one.

Ferreira was charged in February with three counts of indecent exposure and has pleaded not guilty. A pre-trial conference is scheduled for Aug. 17.

In 2001, Ferreira pleaded no contest to charges of lewd conduct in a public place and was sentenced to 30 days in jail and three years’ probation.

The council will vote on a second reading of the ordinance at its next meeting, at which point it would become law.