Just to keep everyone current
Hot-tub sex not a guilty pleasure, judge says
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http://www.dailysouthtown.com/news/77475,1ND3-29.article)
September 29, 2006
By Lauren FitzPatrick Staff writer
The verdict came out as swiftly as a jacuzzi jet: Sexual freedom lives on in the leafy back yards of Lockport.
Will County Circuit Judge Marilee Viola had barely finished hearing closing arguments when she ruled that a 38-year-old lieutenant for the Cook County sheriff's police and her 22-year-old lover did not violate a public indecency statute when they canoodled in the buff in her pink backyard hot tub.
Backyard hot tubs aren't public places, even if teenage neighbors are able to see them, Viola said in acquitting the once-openly amorous couple.
"Common sense tells you those (sexual acts) occurred. But I'm not sure the evidence established this is a public place," the judge continued. "This is a backyard residence; this is a private residence."
Kelly Mrozek, the hot tub's owner, and Mark Sumner, of Orland Park, had faced up to a year in jail on a single count of misdemeanor public indecency, and stood trial for two days for engaging in sexual behavior in what prosecutors called a public place.
Mrozek testified on her own behalf that she and Sumner lay nude in the tub around 4 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2005, but didn't have sex. She also insisted she wasn't drunk on two "Bacardi and diet" cocktails, as a Lockport officer testified.
Before she left the house in nothing but a towel, "I looked around, and there was nobody out at all," she said.
"As long as you attempt in every way to be private in your own yard and make sure no one sees your actions, you should be able to do whatever you want in your own home," her attorney Marty Dolan said, arguing that the case was an overblown dispute among neighbors.
The fight began, he said, after Mrozek had cars belonging to Nash visitors ticketed for blocking her driveway and mailbox.
He accused Cheryl Nash, who lives next to Mrozek in the 1100 block of Treeline Drive, of complaining to police until February -- when the couple were charged -- about the myriad naked acts she, her then-14-year-old son and another neighbor witnessed that November day from their home computer room and their back deck.
"Instead of giving the defendant her day in court, we have to give the Nashes their day in court," Dolan said. "The only, only, only reason we're here is because (Mrozek's) a Cook County sheriff."
Mrozek, an 11-year-veteran of the Cook County sheriff's police who has worked under cover on the vice squads, has been moved to desk duty pending an internal investigation, according to a sheriff's spokesman. Her future with the department should come out in a few weeks; meanwhile, she took unrelated medical leave, he said.
Will County prosecutors had accused Mrozek and Sumner of having sex outside in broad daylight.
"Hey, let's get naked and into a hot tub -- it's 4 o'clock, why not?" Assistant State's Attorney Daniel Walsh told the judge, mocking Mrozek's cavalier attitude toward her actions.
The problem was, Walsh argued, the tub also could be seen from the front sidewalk, even the street, where it sits in the corner of the yard, surrounded by a low slatted fence.
But neighbors along the street of sided duplexes and weathered wood fences didn't seem to care, either.
A young man smoking outside a house a few doors up the street said, "On her property, (Mrozek) should be able to do whatever she wants."
A 28-year-old mother of two tiny children at the other end of the street didn't want her boys exposed to nudie neighbors.
"I personally don't care, but I don't live next door to them," Laura Hidalgo said.
But otherwise, she said, "It's their business, their back yard."
And a woman across the curved subdivision street called the whole affair "silly."
"I think there are more important things for people to worry about," Jeanne Dominguez said.
The Nash parents left the courthouse quietly. Afterward, Cheryl Nash said police had warned her against confronting her neighbor directly.
"She's my neighbor, but this is my family," Nash said of her decision to dial 911. "I didn't need to see that.
"I never ever go out in my yard naked and do that to my neighbors because that is just disgusting."
Son Bobby Nash, who was 14 and just home from Lockport High School when he witnessed hot-tub love in the afternoon, also is upset he had to testify Wednesday in front of everyone against the woman whose driveway he used to shovel.
"It was so traumatic for my son, but they needed him to testify," Nash said. "He went through all this aggravation and stress for nothing."
She and her neighbor who shares a border with Mrozek on the other side, said the problems began years ago, with fights over loud music and fences.
Robbin Garrett, who leaned way back on the stand Wednesday to demonstrate the position she saw Sumner assume from Nash's deck, said she couldn't believe the verdict.
"It was shocking," Garrett said. "I don't think anybody could believe the judge could say she wasn't guilty. That was just overwhelming."
Then Garrett joked about her own plans for the evening, looking at a possible plus from the verdict -- a leisurely sunset skinny dip in her own above-ground pool.
Lauren FitzPatrick may be reached at lfitzpatrick@dailysouthtown.com or (708) 633-5964.
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