Joy Smith, Desean Bell charged with having sex in gas station bathroom
oy Emily Smith, 20, and Desean Franklin Bell, 47, both Minot, are accused of having sex in a Minot gas station bathroom early Monday morning.
Both were charged in district court in Minot with Class A misdemeanor public fornication.
“We have you here on a charge I have never seen before,” remarked North Central District Court Judge Gary Lee in court during Bell’s initial appearance on Monday afternoon. “I assume that it exists.”
An assistant prosecutor from the state’s attorney’s office paged through a law book, looked up the appropriate statute and assured the judge that the offense does exist. The state requested no jail time. People charged with this particular offense are not required to register as sex offenders upon conviction under state law.
Bell pleaded guilty to the charge and Lee ordered him to pay $500 in court costs. He was given credit for one day spent in jail.
Smith is also charged with possession of heroin, a Class A misdemeanor, and possession of drug paraphernalia, a Class C felony. A preliminary hearing for Smith is scheduled for Sept. 12 before Lee.
According to the probable cause affidavits filed with the court by Officers Memorie Andrade and Aaron Bowles, the store clerk called police and reported that a man and a woman had been in the women’s restroom at the gas station, located at 1809 South Broadway, for 45 minutes and had locked the door. The clerk knocked on the door and Smith replied that she was using the restroom. The clerk believed that Smith might have stolen a lighter off the counter and wanted police to remove them from the bathroom. Staff also believed that there might be drug activity going on. Andrade wrote that she felt a “banging vibration” coming from the floorboard. Bowles used a coin to open the bathroom door and found Bell and Smith on the floor of the bathroom, having sex. Police detained the pair. A search of Smith’s purse turned up a folded piece of aluminum foil with scorch marks, a portion of a drinking straw with a partially melted tip and suspected drug residue, and heroin concealed within another small, aluminum foil square.