No-contest plea entered in tattoo-parlor case
By Sara Israelsen-Hartley
Deseret News
Published: August 26, 2008
PROVO — She never showed indecent pictures to minors, but because she was working at the tattoo parlor when four juveniles saw them, she got in trouble.
Shandi Child, 25, a former employee of Happy Valley Tattoo and Piercing in American Fork, pleaded no contest last week in 4th District Court to a class A misdemeanor of indecent public display.
Prosecutors said that a group of teens, ages 14 to 18, came into the shop between October and December of last year and were looking at the one adult-only book, which depicts genital piercings and the piercing process.
[There was only one incident – but they couldn’t tie it down to even the month]
The charge was originally a second-degree felony of dealing in harmful material to a minor, but it was later reduced, and Child was allowed to enter a plea in abeyance case. There are no fees or jail time associated with the plea.
[The original charge was actually 4 Second Degree Felonies]
That means if Child violates no other laws, the case will be dropped, which is an appropriate resolution, said prosecutor Donna Kelly.
[So, according to the prosecutor, the appropriate resolution to the case is to DROP THE CHARGES!]
“The state’s interest is served by making the statement that this kind of material is not appropriate to display to minors, and what happened in this case was not appropriate,” Kelly said. “But also this particular defendant is deserving of a plea-in-abeyance treatment. She has had no criminal history whatsoever and is doing good, positive things in her life.”
[So, according the prosecutor, the state’s interest in charging Shandi with 4 FELONIES is simply to MAKE A STATEMENT that the adult piercing portfolio is not appropriate for minors – even though the book was in a plain black binder marked on the spine in large red letters ADULTS ONLY]
[Additionally, the minors passed by signs on the studio entrance clearly stating that minors must be accompanied by a parent or guardian]
[They initiated prosecution JUST TO MAKE A STATEMENT!]
Kelly said the state didn’t want to impose a conviction that would interfere with Child’s working toward a nursing degree.
[But they didn’t mind putting her through emotional hell for 8 months, incurring thousands of dollars in attorney’s fees and making her so afraid of police action against her that she felt she had to quit her job to feel safe from unlawful prosecution]
“I’m glad this is all ending,” Child said after the hearing. “I’m excited to have my life back.”
Defense attorney John Allan explained to Judge Fred Howard that even pleading no contest to the reduced charge was difficult for Child.
He said some of the teens began talking with her, as she was acting as store manager, while the others found the book marked “adult material.”
“The reason she has struggled with this is at no time did she offer this material to these kids,” Allan said. “She was (just) working at the time.”
[It was difficult for her because she had to violate her personal ethics to plead to a charge that she did not commit, just to get the prosecution’s guarantee to drop the case] [It was difficult because even though her attorney was extremely confident that the judge would dismiss the case that same day in court, Shandi was so intimidated by the AF Police that she was unable to trust Utah Justice]
Child no longer works at the tattoo parlor, but several employees, friends and the owner, Gregory “Doc” Lowrey, came to court to support her.
Before the charges were filed against Child and during a business remodel, Lowrey moved the adult book behind the counter, away from the public.
“Not because we thought they were dangerous,” he said, but just because workers wanted to avoid this problem. He said he’s upset that his material has now been branded as dangerous.
[This is wrong. In twenty years we never had “this problem” of minors looking at the Adults Only portfolio. Minors generally respect our policies.] [All the art books and artist portfolios were moved to make room for a display case. We never felt there was anything inherently wrong with the portfolio.]
Lowrey’s store policy prevents any minor from getting a piercing or tattoo without a parent’s consent. If they come in, the most Lowrey will tell them is the price and he’ll tell them to return with a parent.
And anyone, whether they’re 29 or 89, must show ID to look at the adult-only book or even talk about genital piercings, Lowrey said.
[At the demand of American Fork Police Chief Lance Call and Chief of Detectives, Lt. Darrin Falslev, every person who wants to look at any art or portfolio – not just genital piercings, must provide their ID.] [We did this to avoid hassles with the police not because we thought it was proper] [The ages 29 to 89 were invented by the reporter. To receive or discuss service or to look at art each person must provide ID showing that they are 18 or older.] [The genital piercing portfolio has been in police custody since January 3rd, so no ammount of ID could get anyone a look at that]
E-MAIL: sisraelsen@desnews.com
© 2008 Deseret News Publishing Company | All rights reserved
[This “case” ammounted to nothing more or less than harassment by AF City and an attempt to violate our civil rights in an effort to intimidate us to the point that we would leave town. As Chief Call and Mayor Thompson told us, they don’t think a Tattoo Studio fits their vison of the landscape of American Fork] [They also don’t mind violating their oaths of office to sustain the United States Constiution – when it protects the rights of people who don’t think like them]
Hello,
I am, Kenneth
good overall content
Comment by Seeltyepill — October 21, 2008 @ 3:56 am
The crime rate must be very low for them to spend this much time on something so insignificant.
Sounds like the teens needed some discipline from the parents.
Comment by Losille — October 28, 2008 @ 3:23 pm
Yes, I agree.
Yet discipline and personal responsibility are not generally taught well in Utah.
Teenagers are expected to be “wild” and almost anything they do is tolerated by the community.
When they are adults they keep the jail full so everyone has work.
This is the first place I have lived where it seems EVERYONE in the community goes to jail sometime or other for something (unwatered grass perhaps) and mostly nobody thinks anything of it. (going to jail)
I’ve also never lived before in a place where so many people every summer drive over their children in the driveway or have them wander off and drown in the local irrigation ditch – and the parents are never charged with neglect (or anything) and they open an account at the bank for people to donate money to the negligent parents instead.
I think that’s backward.
People still leave their kids in the car here while they go shopping.
It’s not illegal in Utah to leave your kids unattended in a car.
But you can’t sell wine coolers at the grocery because teen girls like them – though you must be 21 to buy them! (and they log your ID in the store computer)
In Utah “Culture”, if you get a chance to publicly slay a dragon (like a tattoo studio), you get a lot of political points from all the scared to death [do your job, pay your tax, stay in your box] citizenry who have been programed by their various LDSisms to intensly fear and destroy anything, idea or person that is different from their [Utah] LDS model.
So, it would have been a feather in the cap of the Mayor, Chief, Detective and City Attorney to have nailed me to the courthouse wall – especially would they get points at church.
It is, conversely to them, a sad commentary that this time, (perceived) “evil” slipped through their fingers.
At least that’s how I expect them to spin it.
The reality is, they are “good ol boys” and they make and break the law as they go to get what ever they want at that moment.
In Utah it is routine to prosecute people for crimes that don’t fit the evidence, even when there is no crime actually transgressed and then for juries to find the person guilty just for being “different” irregardless of all evidence or testimony.
It’s the Utah Way.
There is also an occasional Miracle Moment of Sanity, as in my case (and in Shandi’s too if she had let the judge have a crack at it – I really wanted to see him chew out the cops and the prosecutor) when truth really does prevail.
I think that mostly only happens when YOU STAND UP AND DECLARE IT.
If you keep your mouth shut, you just get run over.
Always be ready to fire your attorney on the spot and ask for a continuance or even defend yourself if they aren’t defending you.
Utah’s basic character, though it has been carefully tailored to “look” like the rest of America, is actually a social invention, a state character that was developed and instilled by the Mormon Church through the pioneers who settled Utah – after they had been, as a group 20,000 strong, evicted from Missouri under an order for every citizen to “kill or drive from the state” any Mormon “on sight” and then kicked out, again en masse’, by military force, from the United States entirely.
The reasons for these evictions are likely not exactly as told by the Mormons.
There is another side to the story and it supports the idea that a group of con artists and low-lifes, posing as religious zealots (and attracting masses of fanatic-ready dupes as followers) determined to form their own NATION in Utah, separate (as it already was back then) from the United States, and exclusively Mormon.
Just like some in Dixie still pine for the “old South” to “rise again”, in Utah, there is a pervasive and all prevalent desire for the realization of “Deseret” – which I prefer to call Utarnia.
The “Zion Curtain” is a very real thing and Utah protects jealously it’s proclaimed image of Disneyesque McDonaldized Best-Church Country while in reality counting among the worst – and often “the worst in the Nation” for about any social ill you can name.
I really think that those who attempted to persecute me are victims, more than I ever was of them, of this pernicious “screw your neighbor” mentality that is Utah and which they personify.
Fortunately, the constant influx of Californians is beginning to gradually make a change as their growing indignation (they are mostly all Mormon too) with the “Utah Way” and Utah politics is beginning to force positive change in the “LDS Pioneer Society” that Utah has been so far, and continues, in a slow (too slow) demise, to be.
Comment by Dr. Lowrey — October 29, 2008 @ 6:53 pm