Man Arrested for Being Nude at Home

Eric Williamson of Springfield, Virginia, was making coffee in his kitchen at 5:30 in the morning, when a woman walking by with her 7 year-old son looked in his window, and called the police. Why? Eric was nude.

Police have charged him with indecent exposure, because police believe he wanted to be seen by the public. "I am a loving dad. Any of my friends and anyone knows that and there is not a chance on this planet I would ever, ever, ever do anything like that to a kid," he said.

The Naturist Action Committee has Virginia's indecent exposure law details here. It would appear that in order to make a case against Mr. Williamson, prosecutors would need to prove that his exposure was "obscene" within the legal definition, and merely standing nude in one's own kitchen making coffee would not appear to meet the criteria.

This is clearly a case of poor police judgement. Instead of arresting the man, they should have told him to simply close his blinds, and politely ask the complaining woman to stop looking into other people's windows.

Unless it's revealed that the man was masturbating or shaking his genitals in the window, my guess is that the charges will be dropped. If this case proceeds it shows a new aggressiveness by authorities to clamp down on all forms of nudity, even in the privacy of one's own home, and that is simply not acceptable in a free society.