Texas teacher charged with felony for zooming in on wrestler's nether regions

A Grand Prairie, Texas high school teacher has been charged under a Texas' peeping-tom law with videotaping girls' wrestling matches for sexual gratification. Sergeant John Brimmer claimed David Ware, 28, took numerous close-up shots of the wrestler's crotches.

"Improper visual recording" is punishable by two years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The 2001 law is supposed to protect people from small cameras shooting in bathrooms or up women's skirts. Filming a person without consent for sexual arousal is a felony under the law.

Ware shot two hours of videotape, drawing the suspicion of a coach. Sergeant Brimmer claims the close-ups are "a purposeful act of zooming in." Ware's school was not entered in the tournament; his lawyer says Ware was just interested in girls 'rasslin.

It seems unlikely this law is constitutional. How DO you determine intention in a case like this? To prove sexual gratification would require the police to catch the culprit in flagrante, performing the gratification. And, in fact, schoolteacher Ware was not focused on the genitals at all, but the clothing covering those genitals—a maddening 1/4" beneath those tights.

Ware's attorney, Scott Palmer, asked "If you go to a Cowboys game and take a close-up shot of their cleavage, are you committing the same offense because you think that has sex appeal?" Would all the paparazzi in the world be guilty?
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