Va. Man Challenges State's Adultery Law
The Washington Post
John F. Kelly
February 26, 2004
A Luray, Va., attorney who was convicted of adultery last year believes that Virginia's criminal adultery statute is unconstitutional and has turned to the American Civil Liberties Union for help in appealing his case.
Read more below...
John R. Bushey Jr. will argue that the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last year striking down anti-sodomy laws also should apply to adultery, said Kent Willis, executive director of the ACLU in Virginia.
"When this case came to us," Willis said, ". . . it seemed absolutely clear that the state could not criminalize private adultery any more than it could criminalize private sodomy."
Bushey and his ACLU attorney, Rebecca K. Glenberg, were in a Page County court earlier this week for a procedural hearing in the case. "What we're doing here is not expressing approval of adultery but expressing disapproval of government's involvement in private sexual matters," Glenberg said yesterday.
Glenn R. Williamson, the assistant commonwealth's attorney who prosecuted Bushey, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Last October, Bushey, 65, became one of the few Virginians in recent memory to be charged with adultery. His guilty plea in District Court was the result of a plea agreement, and the details have not been made public. Bushey paid a $125 fine and $36 in court costs and resigned as Luray's town attorney, a job he had held for 32 years.
On Oct. 31, he appealed his conviction to Circuit Court. In late fall, Bushey contacted the ACLU's Richmond office, Willis said.
Willis said the ACLU will not contest the details of the case -- that Bushey, married for 18 years to Luray's town clerk, had sexual intercourse with someone other than his wife -- but will focus on its constitutional issues.
"Our challenge . . . is that the government has no right to criminalize the behavior of consenting adults in the privacy of a bedroom," he said.
Del. David B. Albo (R-Fairfax), chairman of a state commission that examined streamlining Virginia's criminal code, said the Bushey appeal "shows how far-reaching the [Supreme Court] decision is," Albo said. "It's a perfect example of how the Supreme Court is inserting its own views into Virginia law."
Adultery is a misdemeanor in Virginia, with a maximum fine of $250. Infidelity also is illegal in Maryland. It will become legal in the District in April when the Elimination of Outdated Crimes Amendment Act becomes law.
Willis said that even though the statute is rarely enforced, it should be stricken from the books because it can affect people's lives in unintended ways. He mentioned a Virginia case involving a police officer who lost his job because he had committed adultery.
"The court's analysis was because that person had committed a crime, they could be fired from their job," Willis said. "It wasn't because that person had committed an act of moral turpitude or undermined their job in some way."
A judge will hear arguments in the Bushey case April 9. Because the ACLU hopes to overturn the adultery law, the case likely will work its way through the judicial system.
"If we do not prevail, we are very likely to appeal," Willis said.
Jeb Caudill, editor of the weekly Page News and Courier, said it was too early to tell how Luray, a Shenandoah Valley town of 4,500 residents, would react to Bushey's appeal and his constitutional argument.
Caudill said the question he gets around town is the same one people have been asking since Bushey pleaded guilty.
"Everybody just wants to know who the girl is," Caudill said. "And we don't know."
For more news, or to subscribe to the newspaper, please visit http://www.washingtonpost.com
Copyright 2004 washingtonpost.com
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Amaza092.jpg | 4.63 KB |
Social bookmark this page
Bushey Adultery Case Delayed
By LAWRENCE J. SMITH
Daily News-Record
LURAY — The parties in a Page County adultery case may be close to reaching an agreement.
Speaking to a virtually empty courtroom Friday, Frederick County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Glenn Williamson asked Judge Herman Whisenant Jr. for a continuance in the commonwealth’s case against John R. Bushey Jr., the former Luray town attorney. Bushey, 65, is charged with one count of adultery.
With Bushey and his attorney, Rebecca Glenberg, absent, Williamson, who was appointed as a special prosecutor in the case, informed Whisenant the parties were in negotiations and could reach an agreement in a matter of months. In a joint brief with Glenberg, Williamson estimated the sides could reach an agreement in about six months.
Whisenant continued the case until 9 a.m. August 20.
Outside the courtroom, Williamson didn’t elaborate on the nature of a possible agreement.
"We anticipate bringing a disposition of this case, but to do that we needed a little more time," Williamson said.
Glenberg also declined comment on the negotiations. Her absence from the courtroom, Glenberg said, was at the request of Whisenant, who said it was necessary for only one party to appear in court Friday.
After initially pleading guilty to the misdemeanor on Oct. 23, 2003, Bushey appealed the case to Shenandoah County District Court. The case was referred back to Page County after Judge John J. McGrath recused himself and Whisenant, from Manassas, was appointed to hear the case.
Glenberg, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, had said the recent Supreme Court decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which struck down a Texas sodomy case on privacy grounds, could be applied to Bushey’s case and makes the commonwealth’s case against Bushey moot.
Contact Lawrence J. Smith at 574-6278 or jsmith@dnronline.com