EDITOR’S NOTE: Kelly Michaud is the editor of the UMaine Orono student newspaper, The Maine Campus. The Free Press and The Maine Campus occasionally share stories that concern both schools.
If you see a naked woman running down the streets of Orono don’t bother calling the cops. As of Wednesday, she is not breaking the State of Maine’s indecent conduct law.
Following a court hearing Wednesday, involving two University of Maine women, 3rd District Court Judge Jessie H. Gunther ruled that if a woman is not showing her genitals, she is not in violation of the law.
The students, Kathryn Mann and Debra Gallou, were found not guilty of indecent conduct.
On Nov. 2, 2001 the girls streaked from a party on Elm Street to Main Street. Orono Police Officer Josh Ewing spotted them, did a “double take,” he said, then arrested them. They were both charged with indecent conduct.
The Maine indecent conduct law prohibits anyone from “knowingly exposing [his or her] genitals [in public] under circumstances that, in fact, are likely to cause affront or alarm.”
During their arraignment, both planned to plead guilty to indecent conduct charges until Judge Ronald Russell questioned whether a naked woman walking or running down a street was breaking the law at all.
Wednesday the court put the wording of the law to the test.
Assistant District Attorney James Diehl questioned Officer Ewing, who testified that the women were indeed in a public area and that they were wearing “not a stitch of clothing.”
Gallou and Mann then separately asked Ewing the question: “Officer Ewing, did you see my genitals?”
Ewing said “No” in both instances.
Diehl argued that the state’s position on this statute is that “they [the defendants] must knowingly expose their genitals and nothing states that the genitals need to be observed.”
Judge Gunther felt otherwise.
“The evidence does not sustain guilt,” Gunther said Wednesday.
Gunther also added that following the ruling, she thinks “the legislature will address this issue in due course.”
Gallou and Mann were both relieved with the verdict.
“I’m really happy about this,” said Gallou, a 20-year-old horticultural science major. “I think Orono is the best town for it to happen to and I think people need to calm down and relax.”
Mann said that she hopes the decision will open peoples’ minds.
“If people want to be naked, let them be naked,” 21-year-old Mann said.
Orono Police Chief Albert Dravidius said he was not surprised by the outcome, after hearing Judge Russel’s reasoning, and said he will uphold the law.
“It appears from the perspective of the court that that section [of the law] is deficient,” he said Wednesday. “Therefore it would be difficult to enforce [indecent conduct] because they’ve ruled that women can’t violate that particular section.”
Dravidius said he doesn’t expect to have too many women running naked through the town, with the cold weather at least, but expects a few more to “disrobe” once it gets a little warmer.
And as long as the state keeps the wording of the statute the same, the police will not be arresting anyone.
“The nature of our business is to enforce the laws of the state and since that’s no longer a law of the state, we can’t enforce it and we won’t do anything against the law,” Dravidius said.
Attorney Ted Curtis, who provided the women with legal advice, said this case serves as a learning tool.
“It’s really important that students realize they are full citizens and that they take possession of their own destiny as much as possible,” he said Wednesday,” and that the burden is always on the state.”
Proposals for changes in the law are not allowed this late in a legislative session unless a very large majority of the legislative counsel wants to change something, Curtis said.
“I expect it will almost certainly be proposed the following year and it probably will be made criminal at some point in the future,” Curtis said.