Spotsylvania County, VA Public Conduct: Public Urination (2026)

Sec. 14-18, added by Ord. No. 14-12 on August 8, 2006, makes it unlawful for any person to urinate or defecate in public or in a place open to public view, with the sole exception of public restroom facilities. The section sits in Chapter 14's general offenses article alongside the county's indecent exposure and public nudity ban in Sec. 14-17, which separately criminalizes exposing genitals, buttocks, or the female breast below the areola in a public place, but Sec. 14-18 is written as its own, narrower offense targeting bodily elimination rather than exposure generally.

Because Sec. 14-18 names its own misdemeanor class, the Sec. 1-11(b) default rule for unclassed offenses does not apply, and the penalty runs under Sec. 1-11(a)(2): a Class 2 misdemeanor carries a fine of not more than one thousand dollars, confinement in jail for not more than six months, or both. Officers may issue a summons on the spot under the county's general misdemeanor arrest procedure in Sec. 1-12, since Class 2 misdemeanors are jailable offenses covered by that section. There is no exception in the text for medical necessity or intoxication, and the statute applies wherever the act is visible to the public, not only on streets or in parks.