Who knew Tampa had a crime-fighting version of the Naked Cowboy? Apparently Walsh Nichols, a Tampa-area college student, began dressing as Batman and frequenting Ybor City… complete with a black motor scooter with the batman emblem. One night in October, police arrested Nichols under Florida Statute 876.12 for wearing a mask in public (a charge, we note, under a “criminal anarchy” statute). According to Nichols, he was wearing the suit but was simply eating sushi at the time; however, he had been warned to take off the mask earlier in the evening.
Tampa Bay Online broke the story – which we agree had to be reported — yet succumbed to the urge to use every Batman cliche. We’ll tastefully avoid that here and even regret that initial reference to the Naked Cowboy above. Of course the legal issues got lost in the pow-zap-bam silliness. Also lost in the story was the citation that Batman apparently did not have the license endorsement to ride the bike.
Does the story end there? Not when local Tampa news can get video for a human interest segment which they entitle, “Batman Seeks Justice.”
Indeed Batman, er, Nichols hired attorney Kevin Hayslett of Carlson & Meissner who filed a Motion to Dismiss and Motion to Suppress, pointing out that the 1951 no-mask-in-public law has a 1981 companion, Florida Statute 876.155, which requires that the masked-person have certain criminal “intent” before it is a crime. The Motion cites a 1980 Florida Supreme Court case which held that the old anti-Ku Klux Klan law could be overbroad; that case apparently inspired the 1981 statute.
As a seedling which could give rise to an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Motion also cites the Fourth Amendment prohibition against unlawful search and seizure (a federal law involving a U.S. Constitutional right, hence the potential road to the High Court). The defense claims the police had no basis for the arrest since the sushi-eating Batman exhibited no criminal intent.
Nichols primed the news with some campy comments, such as the fact that he and his friend do not go to Ybor anymore since they can’t wear their masks. His friend who dresses like Robin, of course. Both dutifully have their own Myspace pages, so you can see Batman and Ybor Robin. A (soon-to-be well circulated) Myspace page has an arrest photo with Batman in full attire.