At Hippie Hollow It's Legal For Voyeurs to take Photos
Anna
subject for some pervs masturbating pleasures as it is perfectly legal
for anyone to take photos of the people who are topless and nude
there.
http://www.co.travis.tx.us/tnr/parks/hippie_hollow.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie_Hollow
http://www.co.travis.tx.us/tnr/parks/pdf_files/plant_inven_pdfs/hippholl.pdf
By the way, there is a comment section at the end of the original
article where you can post your comments to as well as posting your
comments here.
DA: Nothing wrong with topless pix at Hippie Hollow
Travis County prosecutors have dismissed an improper photography
charge against a Houston man who in August took pictures of topless
women near Hippie Hollow Park on Lake Travis.
Phu V. Nguyen, 57, was arrested by a Travis County park ranger on Aug.
9 and charged with the state jail felony offense. The ranger, Jeff
Allbritton, wrote in an affidavit that he believed “the photos were
taken in a deviate manner.”
The women were swimming and sunbathing near the popular nude park on
Lake Travis, across the water from the Mansfield Dam, the affidavit
said.
“There wasn’t sufficient evidence to show it was done … with an intent
to arouse or gratify,” said Assistant District Attorney Claire Dawson-
Brown.
The case was dismissed April 3, according to court records.
Under Texas’ improper photography statute, taking a photograph of
someone without his or her consent and with the intent to arouse or
gratify the sexual desire of any person is a felony punishable by two
years in a state jail.
Dawson-Brown said that prosecutors believed they could not prove that
Nguyen acted criminally because the women were sunbathing in public
and the photos that Nguyen took showed their entire bodies and did not
zoom in on particular body parts.
Allbritton wrote in the affidavit that “several shots… were
inappropriately focused on the genitals area of the girls.”
Nguyen took the photos from a rocky ledge above the two women, behind
a tree and some bushes, the affidavit said. When he was spotted by one
of the women, she said: “Oh my God, you’re kidding me,” the affidavit
said.
Allbritton then chased Nguyen through the park before he stopped and
told Allbritton that he had taken pictures of the area to show to his
friends back home, the affidavit said.
Neither Nguyen nor his lawyer, Kyle Lowe, could be reached for
comment.
Hippie Hollow is the only clothing optional public park in Texas.
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By irritated
May 1, 2009 7:49 AM
“They were asking for it?” Absolutely. If being seen wasn’t part of
thier trip, they wouldn’t go to a public venue to get naked.
In my mind, there’s no difference between playing naked at a state
park and going topless at Eeyore’s (and you better believe you’ll end
up on at least a hundred Facebook pages if you go topless at
Eeyore’s).
You can only make a complaint about someone ‘invading your privacy’
when you have at least SOME expectation of privacy.
By flora68
April 30, 2009 9:35 PM
Oh, he’s DEFINITELY a creep! But I don’t see how you can keep people
from taking pictures of pretty much anything that can be plainly seen
from a public area…
By Billybob
April 30, 2009 7:34 PM
OK Kelso. This is too good a topic for you to ignore. I especially
like the comment with the walrus imagery.
By EatWell
April 30, 2009 7:33 PM
It’s creepy as hell but I don’t see how you can prosecute if it was in
public.
By Jimmy Gilliam
April 30, 2009 7:25 PM
The hoopla should be over the bogus arrest instead of the people at
Hippie Hollow or the photographer. The real problem is cops that make
bogus arrests because they don’t like something or someone.
By AnimuX
April 30, 2009 7:12 PM
As much as this guy is a creep, the law used to arrest and charge him
was created to prosecute people who put cameras in shopping bags and
hold them under skirts. It was not intended to prosecute someone
taking a photograph of women who -intentionally- get naked in a public
place. Sorry ladies. When you disrobe in -public-, just like the
“girls gone wild”, you get stared at and sometimes filmed. Want nudity
and privacy? Sunbathe at a private location.
By WhackyWaco
April 30, 2009 7:04 PM
The city should make the site “nude only”, and anyone entering the
park should be required to disrobe.
By skeptic
April 30, 2009 6:38 PM
Debbie, unfortuantely, the Texas law does make it possible to arrest
someone for taking pictures of someone else in public if that
photographer has the intent to arouse or gratify their sexual desire
(TX Penal Code 21.15(a)).
I don’t think there’s any problem with subsection b of 21.15 which
prohibits taking a pic of someone in a bathroom or dressing room. But
there’s a hell of a big difference between a changing room at the mall
and someone naked out in public.
By Debbie Russell
April 30, 2009 6:03 PM
Is that the dude who jumps out of the bushes every so often and snaps
a photo and jumps back in? Prosecution for that? Geez…what would work
is everyone at Hippie Hollow who witnesses it formulate a little
lighthearted public humiliation action. But yes, it’s public, and no,
you can’t arrest someone for taking pictures in public (unless rules
of an event/locale state otherwise).
By No Voyeur
April 30, 2009 5:38 PM
If you get topless or naked in PUBLIC, you have no right to complain
if some stranger looks at you or takes your picture. Keep your clothes
on, fool, or enjoy the attention.
By Larry
April 30, 2009 5:25 PM
Folks take pictures on every beach in the world because the women are
lovely and almost naked. Taking pictures at Hippie Hollow is no
difference, other than the women/men might be naked. Neither
photographers are perverts, maybe lonely but not perverts. In the old
days, when the area wasn’t a park and was semi-private, guys in boats
would almost run over each other coming in for a look at the pretty
‘hippie’ girls on the rocks. Then the county made the area a park,
built a parking lot on the top, but sadly the park became too public
and everything changed. It is only a ghost of what it once was.
By John Holmes
April 30, 2009 5:13 PM
<>
Asking for what? Asking to be gawked at by taking off their clothes in
a public place?
Seriously, what’s the reasonable expectation of privacy here?
Look, I’ve been out to the Hollow, though admittedly not recently. And
on the occasions that I’ve sunned au naturel, if anybody wanted to
snap a few shots, let ‘em shoot away. If it was gonna be embarrassing,
I wouldn’t have gone to a public park to sun bathe.
Bad law, bad enforcement. (Probably bad photography, and quite
possibly bad subjects.) If I could compensate the man for his
inconvenience, I would.
By Fifty
April 30, 2009 5:08 PM
I would need to see the photos to determine his guilt.
By dpeacher
April 30, 2009 5:01 PM
If it wasn’t deviant, why was he hiding?
I agree with nunyo, some of you folks sound like Clayton Williams.
By ht
April 30, 2009 4:57 PM
this story is worthless without pictures.
By skeptic
April 30, 2009 4:55 PM
To clarify, I don’t think it’s funny and I don’t think these women are
“asking for it”. I think it’s odd that someone could sit at the park
staring at them, or stare at them from a boat, or stare at them
through a telescopic lens and not commit an offense.
Simply because that person snapped a picture, there is this notion
that privacy has somehow been invaded. Do you have a reasonable
expectation in something you willingly expose to the world simply
because an image has been made of it?
By David
April 30, 2009 4:53 PM
Title of this article: “DA: Nothing wrong with topless pix at Hippie
Hollow”. There’s your answer - enough said. I also agree a review of
the pics are in order.
By notastick
April 30, 2009 4:52 PM
With so much public access on Lake Travis now, it’s really not
appropriate to run around nekkid at Hippie Hollow. Maybe 25 years ago
but not today. The only perverts in this story are the folks who go
nude in an area where others might be offended …and still others might
want to take photos.
By jeff
April 30, 2009 4:47 PM
Before I can form an opinion on this matter, I will need to see the
photos in question.
By skeptic
April 30, 2009 4:43 PM
It seems silly to me that I could sit down next to this woman and
stare at her and commit no offense. I could do this for hours and I
might annoy her, but I haven’t done anything wrong under the law. But
if I were to take a picture of her remotely “with the intent to arouse
or gratify” my sexual desire, then I somehow have been more intrusive
to her privacy or threatening/intimidating to her? that doesn’t make
any sense to me.
Just because I think someone is creepy doesn’t mean that they have
committed a criminal offense. It’s a silly law that doesn’t do
anything to protect people.
By *******
April 30, 2009 4:35 PM
Boobs!! Booooobs!!!!! Booooooooobs!!!!!!!!! Got get me some!!!!!!!
By Bob
April 30, 2009 4:31 PM
“I’ve seen better looking walruses.”
Priceless.
By Ride a bike
April 30, 2009 4:21 PM
Some pathetic guy taking a picture and rape are two completely
different things, so don’t even bring up that were are advocating the
“she was asking for it” garbage. This guy should have been reprimanded
or escorted out, but if these women were completely naked in a public
place, then I am sure some types will gawk or try to take a picture.
By nunyobidness
April 30, 2009 4:15 PM
Many of you sound like you are making the “she was asking for it”
arguement. Nice work there.
By Steve1974
April 30, 2009 4:13 PM
a perv catwoman? please…how about the women who are naked arent they
pervs to? at least this guy had his clothes on LOL
By Eagleeye
April 30, 2009 4:10 PM
Has anyone been out to Hippie Hollow lately and seen the kind of women
lying out there naked? I’ve seen better looking walruses. Poor guy, He
must have been really hard-up.
By Ride a bike
April 30, 2009 4:10 PM
Good for him. If you are out in public naked, then don’t start whining
if someone takes your picture.
By Lane
April 30, 2009 4:02 PM
I agree with the poster who says “If you don’t want to be photographed
naked, don’t take your clothes off in public”! Like this guy was the
only person with a camera. what about others with a zoom lens? Our tax
dollars at waste.
By Billybob
April 30, 2009 4:01 PM
If women are going to expose themselves in public, what the heck to
they expect? Guys are going to gawk, and some might even be tempted to
take pictures! This guy obviously was getting an eye-full and wanted
to preserve it with a Kodak moment.
By Sport1921
April 30, 2009 4:01 PM
My husband worked out at the park many years ago. The type of guy
hiding in the bushes taking pictures or doing something else… were
called “bush-whackers” and most of the time thrown out of the park
when they were caught. I don’t think that sunbathing in the nude at a
public park gives some pervert the right to take a picture of you.
Also, who knows what this creeps “intent” was when he home with the
pictures? I think he should have been charged with a felony.
By Bleu
April 30, 2009 4:00 PM
If you let it all hang out in public, don’t be surprised when someone
stares or takes a picture.
By skeptic
April 30, 2009 3:58 PM
Here’s an idea: if you don’t like someone taking pictures of you
naked, don’t be outside naked on Lake Travis. It’s not as if he was
peeking through their windows or sneaking into their houses. He took
pictures of people who were perfectly willing to expose themselves to
the world.
(This is such an overbroad law anyway that it’s likely
unconstitutional.)
By catwoman2009
April 30, 2009 3:50 PM
What a PERV!! Makes my skin crawl.
Zee
> Better watch out if you are at Hippie Hollow as you might become a
> subject for some pervs masturbating pleasures as it is perfectly legal
> for anyone to take photos of the people who are topless and nude
> there.
>
> http://www.hippiehollow.com
>
> http://www.co.travis.tx.us/tnr/parks/hippie_hollow.asp
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hippie_Hollow
>
>
> By the way, there is a comment section at the end of the original
> article where you can post your comments to as well as posting your
> comments here.
>
i would think a guy could go to hippie hollow and take lewd pictures
of nude folks and as long as he was in route to the district attorneys
office with intentions to report lewd behavior and proof of it with
the pictures he had taken....that would be legal in the process of
reporting a crime committed....of course running from an arresting
officer or masturbating to said photo would be questionable...jz
Ken
that traveled from Houston to Austin, parked in the Hippie Hollow parking
lot, then climbed onto the roof of her car so she could complain to a
Ranger about being able to see naked people.
Needless to say, she was greeted with much laughter by the Ranger and
others who witnessed it.
Ken,
Houston
Anna
What does this have to do with people being allowed to take photos
without the permission of the people being photographed?
That's the issue here. At least it should be. Not that the people were
allowed to be nude on the beach but that it was legal for people to
take photos of their nudity without their permission.
Dan MacKay
Anna
> "Voyeurs" don't take pictures, they prefer to watch live action.
Okay, then what do you call the ones who like to take pictures?
Zee
DAN...i never took pictures but i know guys like me that did so i
guess some folks do and some dont....jz
Anna
The question is regardless of the name of the such behavior how do you
like the fact that at Hippie Hollow it is legal to do so?
Dan MacKay
Hmmm, I'm walking around Naked in public.........
Gee, that's a toughie, let me think about that one....
Anna
So you don't mind people taking photos of you. Photos that could end
up on their "pay for perv" web site huh?
Anna
I believe most nudists would be against that. That is why at most all
of the nudist resorts I know of they don't allow cameras.
Dan MacKay
>
> - Show quoted text -
But (apparently) at Hippie Hollow cameras are allowed and pictures
are, so I would presume that as patrons should know this that they are
consenting.
Zee
>
> - Show quoted text -
so if some one is having sex...there is no cameras to record it...jz