Last October, Erick Williamson was arrested for indecent exposure in his own home when two women reported to police that they saw the man naked through his window.
According to the New York Times:
In December, a judge [Ian O'Flaherty] in Fairfax County’s General District Court convicted Williamson of misdemeanor indecent exposure, but imposed neither jail time nor a fine. Still, Williamson appealed his case to the county’s circuit court, risking a maximum punishment of a year in jail to clear his name.
I don’t know if I would have the balls to do that, but being convicted of a sex crime pretty much terminates any chance of a normal life regardless of the seriousness, so it’s certainly understandable that the guy would see even that minor blemish on his record as being an all-or-nothing proposition.
”This isn’t a case about being naked in your house. This is a case about intentional exposure,” [Prosecutor Marc Birnbaum] said.
No, Marc, this is about justice going off the tracks and the prosecutor that made it happen. Laws against nudity are essentially a declaration that the human body is inherently offensive, a position that oozes of puritanical zealotry straight out of the Middle Ages and is totally devoid of even a hint of reason.
When Williamson stated that he didn’t think he was doing anything wrong, Judge O’Flaherty compared him to John Dillinger who also “thought he was doing nothing wrong when he walked into banks and shot them up.”
Nice work, Prosecutor Birnbaum and Judge O’Flaherty. You got your name in the New York Times and established your legacy for all eternity. You might as well have just tattooed the word “IDIOT” on your forehead.
Today Williamson was acquitted by a jury the county circuit.
”It’s really a weight off my shoulders after these last six months,” Williamson said after his acquittal. ”I think (the verdict) kind of sets the record straight. It was an innocent action.”
It’s unfortunate that the state can bring this kind of misery and financial ruin down on someone’s head, call it justice, and then walk away with impunity when the case collapses.
Thanks to theagitator.com which has been following this story from the beginning.