I would imagine that if you polled most people on whether it was okay to record an unconscious naked person in their home and spread the video on a social media platform you’d be met with resounding “Hell No!” answers. However, that gutcheck assumption got questioned in October when a DoorDasher accused a man of sexual assault for deliberately passing out in what would be the deliverer’s direct line of sight. The internet has been ablaze with the fact pattern. Since the order just asked for the food to be delivered at the door, did the food deliverer actually need to be in the line of sight? Was the man a pervert or did he just get too drunk in the comfort of his own home, order some food to sober up, and pass out during the wait? Was there a cognizable indecent exposure charge somewhere in all of this, even if he was in his own home? DoorDash responded by cancelling both the DoorDasher’s and customer’s access to the platform — was that the right thing to do? While there are still many questions, there’s been a decisive development: the DoorDasher was charged with two felonies over the weekend:
And while the comments surrounding what happened and how the DoorDasher responded used a lot of legal sounding language (many of the people talking about the video gravitated toward using the word assault), a much smaller amount of people saying what did or didn’t happen showed a familiarity with the law. A few, namely the public defense attorney with the handle @giancrstesq, covered the case as it developed and were unsurprised with how it has played out so far:
The comments are full of people who shared stories of being insulted or retaliated against for saying that the DoorDasher shouldn’t have shared a video of some naked dude online — at one point @giancrstesq commented that someone threatened to report her to the bar for her prior coverage. Just goes to show that the average person should be careful to get (and share) their legal opinions on social media without doing the homework. To summarize one of the commenters, there is a difference between offense and assault — a distinction that would have been helpful to know before the unlawful surveillance charges.
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim, is interested in critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at cwilliams@abovethelaw.com and by tweet at @WritesForRent.
The post ‘DoorDash Girl’ Hit With Felony Charges For Sharing Video Of Naked, Passed-Out Man On Social Media appeared first on Above the Law.