As Erick Williamson sees it, being naked is liberating, and if passers-by get an eyeful while he’s standing in front of a picture window, that’s not his problem. A Virginia judge saw it a little differently on Friday, convicting Williamson of indecent exposure in a case that has raised questions about what’s OK when in your own home.
Two women said they saw much more of Williamson than they cared to in October, even though he never left the confines of his home. He received neither jail time nor a fine but is appealing anyway, saying a larger principle is at stake.
“I think that being tried and found guilty of something like this is outrageous,” Williamson said.
He testified that he never intended to expose himself and was simply exercising “personal freedom” as he spent several hours naked in his home packing up belongings. Police, prosecutors and two female witnesses, though, said Williamson’s actions were designed to draw attention to himself.
The first woman, 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 house, she saw him naked, standing directly behind a large picture 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.
Regardless of whether he was seen, Williamson’s conduct does not constitute indecent exposure, said his attorney, Dickson Young.
“Mere nudity is insufficient to declare conduct obscene,” Young said, adding 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.”
Williamson, a commercial diver, suggested after the hearing that he was the victim of a double standard. “If I was looking in her window, I think we’d be having a whole different conversation,’’ he said.
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