The only reason for the “possible” hedging in the headline is an editorial inference of the intent of 85 year-old registered Republican The Villages, Florida man Robert Donald Rice during his September 3rd visit to a mens room at Lake Minona Park in the vast golf cart maze senior community. The details in this Monday Villages-News.com article leave zero doubt that Rice is accused of expressing his perversions as the GOP-voting retiree is charged with a misdemeanor count of voyeurism.
It’s just that the specifics – a man entered a restroom stall for its typical purpose only to notice a “rather large hole” and through it spotted a senior with “very white hair” staring directly at him who then stood up to “adjust himself” before fleeing when confronted verbally – could indicate that it was all just a misunderstanding and that Rice had expected the man to have been aware of the likely intentionally-bored hole in the stall wall and its recreational uses for the local community.
From that perspective – pun intended – it’s sort of a faux pas on the victim’s part. Like the hapless motorist who stops at a highway-side park-and-ride lot to smoke a joint, take a brief nap, or both, who then reacts with confusion and perturbation to a smiling male stranger approaching to gently tap on passenger-side window with his wedding ring, there’s an argument here that the man could have sized up the circumference of the hole and made a quick calculation that it is not the product of ordinary entropy. None of this is meant to excuse Rice’s violation of the man’s privacy or to victim blame so much as conjecture about why Rice misjudged the situation. Perhaps there’s some unwritten code in which mean who are in the stall solely to relieve themselves are supposed to stuff the glory hole with a wad of toilet paper to signal their non-interest in an encounter.
Rice, who fled the scene, was finally tracked down by cops and cuffed at a traffic stop 10 days later on the 13th. He was released from custody on his own recognizance after posting $1,000 bond.