Re: Man charged for making coffee in his own home..naked
Posted by:
Dix
()
Date: March 27, 2010 04:34AM
Very interesting. In case the Post decides to deactivate that link in a week or
two, here's the text:
Police entered Naked Guy's house with no warrant, guns drawn
The case of the Naked Guy -- the Fairfax County man arrested for being naked
inside his own house last fall -- is starting to sprout some serious legal wings,
after Fairfax police officers testified Friday that they had no warrant
when they entered the man's house, and then approached him
with their guns drawn as he slept, with pants on, in his bed.
The case of Erick Williamson, 29, attracted significant media attention for his
claims that he had been arrested for indecent exposure on Oct. 19 simply for
drinking coffee in the nude in the kitchen of his rented Springfield house. At
his misdemeanor trial in Fairfax General District Court in December, it turned
out it wasn't that simple.
Actually, according to witness testimony, two separate women passers-by had
called police to report a naked man standing very visibly in the doorway to his
carport, one at about 6:40 a.m. and then another about two hours later. The
second "victim" had her seven-year-old with her, and is the wife of a Fairfax
police officer, Williamson's lawyer said.
Williamson testified he never posed in any doorway or window -- the second woman
said he appeared at both the carport door and then in a front window -- and had
no intent to flash the many pedestrians heading to nearby Hunt Valley Elementary
School. Judge Ian M. O'Flaherty ruled that the extended nudity "indicates an
obscene display" and found Williamson guilty.
Williamson appealed to Fairfax Circuit Court. And on Friday, his lawyers tried to
suppress his arrest and his statements to police. Fairfax Circuit Court Judge
Jane Marum Roush rejected both motions, but along the way new information emerged
that Williamson's lawyers will use in his Circuit Court trial on April 7.
Officer Sha'aron Williams testified that he responded to both nudity complaints
at the house on Arley Drive. After the first, received at 6:41 a.m. and checked
out at 7 a.m., Williams said the house was dark, he could see no signs of life,
the complainant wasn't around, and he left after a few minutes.
Three police officers responded to the second complaint about 9:16 a.m., and
again Williams said the house was dark, there were no signs of forced entry and
no one around to speak with. But in the carport, behind the glass storm door, the
interior door was missing a pane of glass, the officer said. Williams said he
tried the knob, and it was unlocked. The three officers went inside.
Williams said entering an unlocked house was Fairfax police policy in this
situation, in case unauthorized people had broken in or someone was injured or in
danger inside. He said he repeatedly, loudly, announced, "Fairfax County police,
is anyone here?"
Weapons were drawn "just in case we encountered a hostile individual," Williams said.
The officers eventually went upstairs and found a man face down, asleep, with
trousers on, Williams said. His hands were under him, so he was ordered to show
his hands, which he did, the officer said. He was told why the police were there,
and police found a traffic summons to obtain his identification, Williams said.
Williams asked about any naked men walking around, and he said Williamson
initially "said it was his roommates. Then he changed his story and said it might
have been him, "he was up making coffee, he might have been in the nude."
After a few minutes, the three officers retreated to their cars to ponder their
next step. Then Williamson took an odd step. He walked outside to his truck,
carrying an open beer. The officers advised him that was illegal. Then, one of
them asked if they could take his photo, Officer Stewart Struthers said. And they
did.
Struthers said police then drove the digital photo over to the second victim's
house and showed it to her. Then the officers went back to Williamson's house and
arrested him, intending to charge him with felony indecent exposure because a
child was involved.
But at the Fairfax jail, a magistrate only charged Williamson with a misdemeanor.
After he was processed, he began walking back toward Springfield from Fairfax
City. His lawyer, Dickson M. Young, said Williamson then got a call from his
employer, asking why he'd been arrested for exposing himself to children. Young
said police had called Williamson's boss. The boss, who also rented out
Williamson's house, ordered Williamson out of the house immediately.
Young wanted Roush to rule that the arrest was illegal and Williamson's
statements inadmissible, under the logic that the warrantless entry enabled the
police to obtain Williamson's name, and then his comments admitting nudity.
"They couldn't have gotten the [arrest] warrant," Young said, "without finding
out who he was."
He said the photo taken of Williamson was then "fruit of the poisonous tree," and
that it was likely shown to the victim without a lineup or array.
Roush said, "I believe the police were operating in good faith under the
community caretaker exception," in which officers may make warrantless entry to
ensure citizens' safety, "and this was not a pretext to enter the house. They
were called to the house twice, they saw a window broken, they had reason to go
in."
Young cited to Roush a 2005 Virginia Court of Appeals case, which ruled that "the
mere discovery of an 'open door' of a residence -- absent some other reasons for
concern -- is not, in and of itself, a circumstance that could give rise to a
reasonable belief that entry is necessary to prevent harm to persons or property."
But Roush wasn't buying it.
"I think it's a sad day for the citizens of Fairfax County," Young said
afterward, "when these officers can enter a private residence without a warrant,
without an invitation, to investigate criminal activity, because of a missing
window pane on an interior door."
Young has another round of legal challenges, both on the privacy issue and on the
question of whether nudity alone equals obscenity or indency, set for next Friday.