The wife of a Fairfax County police officer has filed charges against a man for being naked in his own home. Apparently the woman cut through Eric Williamson’s yard while walking her boy to school and said she saw him naked at a door and again walking past a window.
Williams says he was in his own house and had no clue anyone could see him. Nevertheless, he was arrested and led away in cuffs for indecent exposure.
According to WTOP:
Channel 5 reports the woman and 7-year-old boy who saw him naked apparently had cut through Williamson’s front yard from a nearby path.
Williamson says he didn’t know anyone could see him.
“If I stood and seemed comfortable in my kitchen, it’s natural. It’s my kitchen,” Williamson tells Channel 5.
Williamson says his roommates were not home when he came into the kitchen and made his coffee.
Fairfax County Police say they believed Williamson wanted to be seen naked by the public.
Williamson, a father of a 5-year old girl, said he plans to fight the charge.
“There is not a chance on this planet I would ever, ever, ever do anything like that to a kid,” he says
How does a court ever sort this out? It really is a case of she said/he said. I guess this is why it is a good idea to walk around with a digital camera. I would like to know if this woman has experienced someone exposing himself to her in the past. Williamson is understandably outraged.
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I’m not a lawyer, but the issue is be pretty cut and dry. People enjoy a very, very broad right to privacy in their homes and on their property as long as whatever you are doing cannot be seen or heard from public land. The lines of sight from the windows should be easy to determine and can verify if the woman and her child were trespassing as well as if the man’s nudity could have been seen on a public street.
If the woman and child were invading his privacy through their trespass, there is no violation of law on his part. (While the circumstances are different, it would be equivalent to a burglar breaking into someone’s home, seeing the homeowner naked and then charging the homeowner with indecent exposure.)
I suspect that the charges will dropped once the CA has an opportunity to review the matter. Too bad the man won’t be able to get his reputation back. I know if it were me, I would be preparing civil action against the woman for the trespass and seeking damages due to the damage to his reputation due to her trespass. (Of course, I probably would have been wearing a robe in the first place, but that’s not the point.)
All good points Anonymous, but the wrinkle is that according to MyFoxDC, the Fairfax County PD is now actively canvassing the neighborhood with flyers looking for others who may have seen this man naked from his windows. I don’t know if they are doing this because they actually believe he is a person who gets off exposing himself, or is at best terribly negligent, or if they, errr, are trying to cover their own asses for arresting the guy. But I worry that even if the guy is just a hapless free spirit (I have to laugh at all the coverage that specifies he grew up in Hawaii!), there may be people in his neighborhood that will take this as an opportunity to object to the tenants of a group house. Group houses aren’t exactly popular in the burbs.
Yesterday the Post had a really interesting online chat with a lawyer (not the guy’s lawyer) about the legal issues involved in Va. law, particularly the issue of intent on both the man’s part and the woman’s part. I recommend it.
“Fairfax County Police say they believed Williamson wanted to be seen naked by the public.” Wow! I wish all Police Departments had the ability to read minds! The world would be a much safer place if local, State & Federal cops had such powers. I can see the headlines now, “Jones was arrested because Fairfax County Police believed he wanted to rob a Bank.”
The guy was naked in his own home. The woman and her child were trespassing on his property. Get over it, let him go, and move on (although I smell civil suit… probably why the police department is pushing this). This shouldn’t be a big deal (although “how big” a deal wasn’t actually mentioned in any of the news reports).
Most of the rest of the world would laugh this off (as only in America)… and I’ve lived in most of the rest of the world at one time or another.
Actually, I believe the law requires that the prosecution demonstrate that the nakedness was done intentionally to expose oneself to others. That is a pretty high standard and I would be surprised that they could prove it. The fliers are no doubt meant to show a pattern as part of that legal requirement.
I actually sat on a jury in California for a similar type of case. In the case (I was the foreperson by the way), the person was found not guilty in a matter of minutes. I don’t think everyone on the jury actually had time to sit down in the jury room. They never proved that anything the person did was intentional to “excite oneself or others.”
Wolfie, my comment is in moderation and I am not sure why? When you look at it, did I break a rule? If so, please let me know what it is?
Rez, it might have been a new address or one that needed approval again. I think if you switch email addresses it requires reapproval. You are fine now.
I didn’t see any broken rules. Sorry you had to wait. I was up late last night and was being very lazy this morning. I got a rude awakening with 3 dog tongues slobbering on me for punishment. Definitely a slow sleepy morning the hounds of hell did not think I was entitled to enjoy.
I wondered if the fact that the woman was married to a Fairfax policeman had anything to do with the attention this case is receiving. The man has a clean record doesn’t he?
In today’s legal environment, all it takes is for a thin-skinned WOMAN to say anything against a MAN, and the gestapo-wannabes leap into action to defend the supposed damsel’s honor. Women know this very well and use this lopsided political power to advantage in all walks of life today.
We need to restore equal protection under the law as our main premise.
I realize that local statutes vary and that Virginia is still barely out of the dark ages with regard to anything hinting of sexuality, but there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with being naked. People should be able to go without clothes if they want. It IS, after all the way GOD made us.
The one who should be hauled off to jail is that, obviously sexually repressed B*tch, who is peeping in on her neighbor.
If someone forgets to clothes the drapes and happens by unclothed, and you disapprove, then LOOK AWAY, problem solved.
We need to rewrite our laws to take away the many ways that police are used to abuse our citizens. It is not the fault of police, but our legislators, for mandating so many stupid laws that, for instance, make criminals out of innocent gentlemen who happen into their kitchen without a robe.
Yet another lesson to children that the human body is a disgusting thing to be ashamed of and should be hidden at all times…people who are comfortable with their bodies should be punished and have their names dragged through the mud!
…Unless you get plastic surgery, that’s where Maxim teaches children that perfected body should be exposed and exploited.
Chalk up another one for Jackass American values being the laughing stock of Europe.
In Germany, France or Russia this would be a non-issue.
The Taliban on the other hand would give us props for upholding modesty above nature and reason!
-sigh
I guess a man’s home was not his castle, in this case. I feel he was violated.
The common sense answer here is for the woman to get out of his yard.
We had a guy in Colorado that lived down a hill from us. We could see right into his apartment. He would leave the blinds open and walk naked all the time. Okay, I understood that. But the night we saw him and his date doing it like rabbits, it was time to do something. A brave neighborhood lady went down and talked to him, told him everything we were viewing. He said he had no idea. The next day, there was a shade in that window and it was always drawn.
I still think he knew.
@rod2155
Good points, Rod. Society doesn’t work naturally, however.
@Moon-howler
Actually, I had never registered before. I always use the same email but I think it was because I was a new registered member. I was thinking about getting an avatar so I thought I should join.
i didn’t have to wait.
Good, Rez. And welcome as a regular ‘member.’ I didn’t know that or even pay attention to all the insider stuff. I guess I considered you a regular without all the word press stuff I don’t understand. But glad you didn’t have to wait.
Welcome Clairese. I guess that is one way of looking at it. Perhaps she was just being a mother bear protecting her cub.
With these types of cases, I always have to remind myself that I was not there and am just getting the interpretation from the newspaper.
So the fact that the woman is married to a police officer gives her a free pass on trespassing laws? She should be arrested.
No, I don’t think that. I am just wondering if she got preferential treatment at the magistrate’s office or cop response because she was a cop wife.
This story disgusts me. I think the combination of busybody/cop’s wife can be a real PIA for a neighborhood. She had no business cutting through his yard. It can be irritating and invasive to a homeowner to have their home be the neighborhood thruway.
This story really is a confusing one as the woman was seemingly in violation of trespassing law. Why wasn’t she charged for that? This man’s reputation is getting trashed b/c she cuts through his yard, sees him naked 2x (how long was she in the yard for goodness sakes) and calls 911 to report this? Talk about a waste of taxpayer money and an officer’s time. Is there more to the story that hasn’t been told maybe? (Like he was doing something explicit while standing there naked.)
One thought, I do have friends w/ young kids who seem to have an overactive “mama bear” instinct at times, and this may be an example of this. The attitude is one based out of fears of child abduction and also of sexual predators who prey on children. (Which are relevant fears and things we should be concerned about of course, but within reason.) With the 24 hour news channels featuring child abduction and abuse stories over and over, it can create an overprotective mindset in young parents. This young mother may have overreacted due to this perhaps?
IWK Manassas, I have thought all along something was missing. I want to know why she didn’t at least get scolded for being in someone else’s yard.
If you have a pool and a privacy fence and choose to skinny dip, are you indecent if someone peeks through the slats or over the top?
Maybe he appeared naked on purpose, because he’s sick to death of the traffic through his yard and thought maybe the shock value would help it to stop. Who knows? I find myself siding with the guy even though I don’t know all the facts.
Hahaha! Emma, I thought the same thing. Enough is enough. I find myself siding with him also.
Natural law trumps state law every time.
Lawyers and police might not like it; but we are brought into the world naked; and naked is a natural state of being. There is nothing disgusting about our bodies. The man was not out in the street flashing people… he was in his home.
The ridicule Fairfax County is getting over this is well deserved.
The Wapo article is interesting…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/25/AR2009102502468.html
He said 5 cops showed up at his door (one with a Taser to his face), called him a pervert and went through his belongings. No mention of a warrant.
He said – she said. This’ll come out in the wash. The County’s burden is to prove intent of indecent exposure.
If the accused is correct, he’s sitting on a gold mine.
He should put some pants on before perching on that gold mine. Gold mines are cold.
I agree Ring and he will deserve it. It sounds to me like he was in his house minding his own business. There has been no mention of any previous complaints either. The man lives in a stationary house. It isn’t like a drive-by flasher.