You Can Go To Jail for Adultery in New York

Help us! We’ve fallen into a Hawthorne novel and we can’t get out!

OK, not really. But get this — a New York woman recently arrested for lewd conduct after she was allegedly caught having sex in a park with her lover is facing an additional charge: adultery.

Suzanne Corona, 41, was busted getting down on a picnic table with Justin Amend, 29, last week, The New York Daily News reports.

“[The police officer] asked them what they were doing, and they said, ‘Just talking,’ and obviously they weren’t just talking,” said Officer Eric Hill, of the Batavia Police Department, where the crime took place.

They were charged with public lewdness and when it was found that Corona was married, the adultery charge was added. She faces up to 90 days in jail or a fine of $500.

Corona did not enter a plea at court on Tuesday. She vows to fight the constitutionality of the charge.

“One of the reasons you don’t see this charge more often is that the law in New York State requires that there must be corroboration,” Genesee County District Attorney Larry Friedman told the Daily News. Of course, in this instance, the infraction happened in a public park and there were witnesses.

“The police are not out conducting investigations looking for people committing adultery,” Friedman assured the public. “At this point, the charge is still pending.”

According to ABC News, nearly a dozen others have been similarly charged statewide — Scarlet Letter, much?