Stacie L. Patterson Law Blog

Virginia man, Erick Williamson has been acquitted of the indecent exposure charges brought against him.  Williamson was nude, inside his home when two women saw him.  The first woman, a school librarian accused Willimason of moaning loudly and drunken singing and then seeing him naked as she drove past his house early that morning.  The second woman was walking her child to school 2 hours later when she testified that Williamson was standing naked in a doorway of his home with the screen door wide open.  She said she made eye contact and "angrily gave him the finger".  Williamson denies ever having seen her, let alone making eye contact.  According to the MSNBC article, Virginia state law states that "indecent exposure occurs when a person intentionally makes an obscene display of his or her private parts.  The law does not necessarily require the exposure to be in a public place — it allows for prosecution when the exposure occurs in a "place where others are present."  Williamson was convicted in December of misdemeanor indecent exposure but the judge imposed neither jail time nor fine.  Subsequently, Williamson risked a year in jail by appealing his case to the county's circuit court to clear his name.