FAYETTEVILLE — Washington County Circuit Judge Mark Lindsay declined Thursday to declare the state’s video voyeurism law unconstitutionally vague.
Attorneys for Travis Lunsford, who is accused of secretly recording himself having consensual sex with women in his home, argued the law was an overreach of the Legislature’s police powers, that there was a free speech aspect to the case on Lunsford’s part and that the victims have a recourse in civil law for invasion of privacy.
“This law is so broad as to be incomprehensible,” said Joe Griffin, Lunsford’s attorney.
Lindsay said the state’s laws are designed to promote morality and, to that end, the state has a reasonable purpose in preventing people from being video recorded in private places where they have an expectation of privacy.
“Arkansas is a state that promotes morals,” Lindsay said. “To believe the state of Arkansas’s public policy of morality has dropped below the level suggested by the defense is ridiculous.”
Griffin argued the state does not have a compelling interest in protecting individuals from embarrassment and the law only requires a video be made, not disseminated, to be a crime.
Kevin Metcalf, a deputy prosecuting attorney, countered the women did not know they were being taped and did not consent to being in a sex film.
“We’re running out of privacy,” Metcalf told the judge. “All we have left are those moments when we’re out of public view.”
Lunsford set up his secret recording device in a place people are out of view and had a reasonable expectation of privacy, Metcalf said.
Lindsay said the law is clear it is a felony to use a device to secretly another person in a private place without their consent. The judge also rejected the free speech argument, saying it appears the women did not know about the video camera and, therefore, could not have given their consent to be recorded.
Lunsford, 40, of Fayetteville, was arrested in January after police received an anonymous letter in November which said Lunsford was recording sexual encounters with women without their knowledge. The letter contained a flash drive with a dozen videos.
Police were able to identify one of the women who said the sex was consensual but she was unaware she was being recorded.
Trial is set for Aug. 8.