Virginia, you can strut around your home nude again. The indecent exposure conviction of a man seen naked in his home was overturned in Circuit Court in Fairfax County Wednesday.
Erick Williamson was arrested in October on a misdemeanor charge after a woman and her 7-year-old son told police they walked by the house at about 8:30 a.m., heard a noise, looked over and saw a naked man standing in a doorway. As they continued past the house, they saw him again through a front window.
Williamson, an underwater construction diver, lived in a Springfield home owned by the company he worked for at the time of the October incident. A roommate employed by the same company said in October that Williamson had been fired the Friday before the incident for missing work and was behaving oddly that Oct. 19 morning.
"We wake up to Erick running around the house with nothing but a work hardhat on, butt naked," the roommate told News4.
Williamson admitted to being naked and said he probably could be seen from outside the home.
Prosecutors said Williamson intended to make a display of himself and made no effort to cover up.
Williamson was sentenced in December to only a suspended sentence -- no fine -- but he appealed anyway. He testified Wednesday that he did not mean to be seen and that he believes he has the right to be naked in his own home, the Associated Press reported.
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A seven-person jury deliberated for fewer than 20 minutes before acquitting Williamson.
