Why can't I walk around naked in my own home? Damn nanny state.
Posted on 12/18/2009 9:06:08 PM PST by myknowledge
A US man has been charged with indecent exposure for being naked in his own home.
Erick Williamson, 29 was observed without clothes through a doorway and a window, by a seven-year-old boy and his mother who were walking by.
Williamson argued that it was his home, and therefore he could choose to go nude.
But a judge found against him, saying that he intended to make himself visible to passers-by.
The Virginia man said he will appeal the decision.
"I think that being tried and found guilty of something like this is outrageous," Williamson said after he was convicted and sentenced.
"I feel like I'm living in a fishbowl."
Williamson testified that he never intended to expose himself and was simply exercising "personal freedom" as he spent several hours naked in his Springfield home packing up belongings.
Police, prosecutors and two witnesses, though, said Williamson's actions were designed to draw attention to himself.
The first woman who passed by, school librarian Joyce Giuliani, said she heard some loud singing as she left her home and drove to work. As she drove by Williamson's home, she saw him naked, standing directly behind a large window.
A few hours later, Yvette Dean was walking her seven-year-old son to school along a trail that runs by Williamson's home.
She heard a loud rattle, looked to her left and saw Williamson standing naked, full frontal, in a side doorway.
"He gave me eye contact," Dean said.
As she turned the corner, she looked back at the home, in disbelief at what she had just seen.
Again, she saw Williamson, naked in the same window.
One of Williamson's housemates testified that Williamson had been nude well before dawn.
Timothy Baclit testified that he woke up around 5am to go to work and saw Williamson walking around "naked ... with a hard hat."
He said he warned Williamson that he would be visible to passers-by but that Williamson did not respond.
Williamson, 29, said the conversation with Baclit never occurred and that he never noticed that two women had seen him.
He said "it did not occur to me" that people outside the home might see him naked.
Regardless of whether he was seen, Williamson's conduct does not constitute indecent exposure, said his attorney, Dickson Young.
Under Virginia law, the charge requires "an obscene display or exposure" and must occur in "a public place or a place where others are present."
Young argued that neither prong had been met.
"Mere nudity is insufficient to declare conduct obscene," Young said, noting that none of the women testified that Williamson was aroused or that he made any sort of obscene gesture.
"Nudity in one's own home is not a crime."
Why can't I walk around naked in my own home? Damn nanny state.
I woujld lock up everyone involved for a day for wasting the court’s (and thus the public’s-) time with nonsense like this.
It ought to be overturned on appeal due to wrong interpretation of law and then if Virginia wants to outlaw housebound exhibitionism it can pass a law for that purpose.
Worst-case scenario for this guy: he is found not guilty on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
Although I think the guy was railroaded and will win on appeal. I, for one, think he was ill advised to walk around in his house naked with open curtains. You might be proud of your body, but the rest of the world might not be.
Well its not like he was spanking it up behind the agapanthas
Sounds to me like this guy is a perv. Whether the law should be involved, this guy wants to be seen naked.
Sounds to me like this guy is a perv. Whether the law should be involved, this guy wants to be seen naked.
He was naked....with a hard hat. Is he trying to say something?
He was naked....with a hard hat. Is he trying to say something?
More govt abuse. If I were to walk by a woman’s house and she were naked, who do you think would be in Jail or charged?
Must’ve rubbed the viagra on his head.
I’m naked right now.
Oh, wait... someones at the door.
I’ll be right back.
make that - "If I were to take a short cut through the womans yard"
Tresspassing legal definition of Tresspassing. Tresspassing ...An unlawful intrusion that interferes with one's person or property.
Nude, singing, and wearing a hard-hat. Was he listening to The Village People at the time?
Has this guy ever heard of window blinds or curtains?
It’s not like he was parading around nude and posing in front of the window for the world to look in.
I read the original article back when — the woman and her son were walking on the path at about 6:00 A.M and didn’t mention any other *harmed* victims peering in his windows. He stated he went into the kitchen to get some water and there they were, gawking.
Be careful what you look for, you just might see it.
Maybe he needs to sue them for being peeping toms.
The guy wearing the Indian headdress is straight.
Oops. I was wrong. The guy who was the “cop” was the straight one.
there was a straight one???
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