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Legal challenge to prostitution law thrown out
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Posted on Feb 26 1999
A Superior Court decision penned by Associate Judge Timothy Bellas finds section 4 of Public Law 11-19 is not intended to prohibit constitutionally protected conduct or speech.
The court then denied the motion to dismiss an earlier case which contended the law as unconstitutional and vague.
Defendant Liang Zheng, who was arrested and charged with prostitution loitering, questioned the law and asked the court to dismiss his case.
The decision denying his motion said section 4 prohibits an individual from loitering in a public place. In addition, it carries the criminal intent to solicit, induce, entice or procure another to commit prostitution.
Zheng and his companion were being watched by police officers last December at the western section of Garapan pursuant to “Operation Red Light”. The officers saw the defendant approaching Asian pedestrians. He was then arrested and charged with prostitution loitering under P.L. 11-19.
According to the court, this element of specific criminal intent saves section 4 from being unconstitutional. The court added that persons of ordinary intelligence would readily understand what illegal conduct is as prohibited by section 4.
