Captain Steven Bryan Davis has handed in his badge and resigned from the Arkansas State Police after being charged last week with public masturbation. The fact that he invited two undercover cops to join him in the touching tableau may well add to his embarrassment.
According to reports in the Arkansas Times and other sources, Davis drove last Tuesday afternoon to a wooded trail near Fort Smith Park, which is listed as a popular cruising spot on several websites.
The undercover duo – one male, one female – spotted him masturbating in his car while watching porn on his computer. On making eye contact with them, he approached their car and asked them to perform sex acts on each other for his further enjoyment.
At this point they identified themselves as police and arrested him.
Davis was booked for a loitering misdemeanor, with a court date set for September 8, and has since resigned from the force.
The Class C misdemeanor carries a punishment of up to 30 days in jail and/or a fine of up to $500. However, some commentators have voiced surprise that Davis did not face a more serious charge. A writer for the copblock.org website commented:
“I’m sure that if any ordinary citizen had been caught ‘giving themselves a tune up’ in public and then asked the cops that caught them to do some creepy stuff in their car, they wouldn’t get charged with some sort of sex crime.”
But it’s legal in Italy
Now that Capt. Davis has resigned and may be reviewing his options, he might want to think about moving to Italy, where public masturbation was declared legal earlier this week.
The Supreme Court overruled the conviction of a 69-year-old man who had been sentenced to three months in jail and a fine of nearly $4,000, stating:
“The act is no longer regarded as a crime.”
Staying closer to home, he could also consider North Carolina, where attorney Christopher Connelly offers specific advice for people charged with the offense.
He will also want to hope that Texas Senator Ted Cruz – a former candidate for the Republican presidential nomination – never makes it to the White House, because in April this year, Cruz declared:
“There is no substantive-due-process right to stimulate one’s genitals for non-medical purposes unrelated to procreation or outside of an interpersonal relationship.”
But the captain will almost certainly want to avoid Indonesia, where public masturbation is punishable by up to 32 months in prison, or Saudi Arabia where offenders can face three years in jail and 300 lashes.
Here’s an on-the-spot report of the ticklish conversation between Capt. Davis and the arresting officers.
Featured image: screenshot via YouTube
