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213 Va. 344

Breeding v. Commonwealth

Supreme Court of Virginia

Decided November 27, 1972

Supreme Court of Virginia · decided 1972-11-27

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

“suggestive remarks or gestures and there was no evidence he was sexually aroused.”

quoted by 1 later decision, including Viney v. Com.

Relies on McKeon v. Commonwealth

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1972-11-27

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently December 2015

10 state decisions

4019721980199020002010decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Per Curiam.

¶1 Defendant, John Purnell Breeding, was charged in two indictments with exposing his genital parts “with lascivious intent” to two children under the age of fourteen years, in violation of § 18.1-214, Code of 1950, as amended. He was tried by the court without a jury and sentenced to three years in the State Penitentiary on each indictment, with the sentences to run concurrently. We granted writs of error to the judgments.

¶2 The evidence shows that on the afternoon of June 24, 1970, two girls, 8 and 10 years old, respectively, were playing on Arbutus Circle in the City of Chesapeake. A car driven by the defendant stopped and he asked them the way to Daniel’s Pharmacy. When the girls approched the car they noticed that defendant’s trousers were unbuckled and unzipped, and they saw what they referred to as his “privacy.” The defendant made no suggestive remarks or gestures *345 and there was no evidence that he was sexually aroused. After obtaining the information sought, defendant went on his way.

¶3 The evidence of the Commonwealth is insufficient to prove the lascivious intent required under the statute, and the convictions cannot be upheld. McKeon v. Commonwealth, 211 Va. 24, 26-27, 175 S.E.2d 282, 284 (1970).

¶4 The judgments are reversed and set aside and the cases are remanded to the court below for a new trial if the Commonwealth be so advised.

¶5 Reversed and remanded.

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