Erick Williamson, 29, continued to believe that he had done nothing wrong and that he did not purposely expose himself to two women and a 7-year-old boy who walked past his house the morning of Oct. 19. He immediately appealed his conviction. "That's outrageous," he said after the verdict. "It's unbelievable." He said publicity from the arrest had cost him a job as a commercial diver. "I'm the victim," he said.
The incidents occurred at Williamson's rented townhouse on Arley Drive in the Springfield area. In the first, neighbor Joyce Giuliani testified that she heard moaning coming from Williamson's house about 6:15 a.m., then singing at 6:35. On her way to work a few minutes later, she said, she drove past the townhouse, glanced at it and saw a man standing in the front window "unclothed."
Yvette Dean testified that about two hours later, at 8:40 a.m., she and her son were walking single file on a footpath near the side of Williamson's home. She said her son was in front of her, so she darted up to him and put a coat over him so he couldn't see. They continued walking toward the sidewalk on Arley Drive on their way to Hunt Valley Elementary School. "I looked again," Dean said. Williamson had moved to a window at the front of the house, still offering a fully unobstructed view of himself, she said.
He said he made coffee, did some cleaning, made breakfast, packed some more. He said he never stood in front of either the open doorway or the front window, was merely going about his morning business and didn't intend to expose himself. "It didn't cross my mind" that pedestrians might see him, he said. There were curtains on the windows, he said, but they were open.
"I believe from the evidence here," Judge O'Flaherty said, "that the gentleman obviously was intentionally naked in the house. I find that the windows were completely uncovered. The fact that it went on for so long indicates an obscene display, and I find the gentleman guilty." O'Flaherty sentenced him to 180 days in jail, all suspended for one year. He imposed no fine, just court costs of about $72, which Williamson didn't have to pay because he appealed.
My question to you: Do you think this man should be punished for being naked in his home?
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