By Gary Dickson
Last week my wife told me she had heard about a story in which a man was charged with indecent exposure while alone, inside his own home. Initially, we wondered how that could happen. Isn”t a person”s home supposed to be their castle? With interest piqued, I went to the Internet to locate the story. While the man who was charged has made a lot of noise about how he was treated by the police and others, I now know there is a “rest of the story” situation for this case.
The man charged, 29-year-old Eric Williamson, went downstairs, completely naked, to fix some breakfast. He shared the rented Fairfax, Virginia home with several other housemates. Williamson was the only one home at the time. Out front, a woman was walking her 7-year-old son to school. It was about 8:40 a.m. The woman and her son both saw the nude Williamson through the window of the house. She claims Williamson positioned himself so he could be seen through two different windows. The woman, whose husband is a Fairfax police officer, called 911 and reported Williamson for indecent exposure.
At 10 a.m., according to Williamson, he was asleep in his bedroom when he was startled awake by one policeman calling him a pervert, while another held a Taser in front of his face. Williamson was quoted as stating, “The police treated me like an animal.” Williamson also said, “A home is a sacred place. When that just gets shattered and destroyed over an accusation, that”s something I don”t believe can be tolerated.”
Williamson is a commercial diver who had recently lost his job. He is the father of a 5-year-old daughter who does not live with him. He was preparing to move out of the rented house and move back in with his mother.
At first, I could empathize with Williamson. Most of us have probably wandered through our own home with nothing on. How would we feel if someone had caught a glimpse, unbeknown to us, and the next thing we knew the police were crashing through the front door?
But, as I researched this story more thoroughly, I decided that Williamson was not nearly as innocent as he professed. First of all, at the time the woman and her son saw Williamson, there were no curtains on the kitchen windows. One of Williamson”s roommates later said it was odd. When he left for work that morning there were no curtains, but when he returned home that evening curtains had been installed. The old adage that “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones,” seems to work well for this case.
I certainly believe the police officers acted too forcefully, and perhaps, illegally. They should have knocked on the door, rather than entering unannounced. Williamson claims he never saw the woman and boy who reported him. But, at 8:40 in the morning, Williamson had to know that anyone who walked by on the sidewalk out front could see him in front of windows without curtains.
Even if Williamson was not intentionally trying to expose himself to the people outside of the house, he was exposed, nonetheless. But, according to Atchuthan Sriskandarajah, a Fairfax attorney who handles sex crime cases, “It”s not the exposure itself that makes it indecent. There has to be some kind of obscene intent.”
Williamson faces charges that, if found guilty of, could place him behind bars for up to a year. Regardless of what happens to Williamson in court, I believe that he made a poor decision that morning, and I know he realizes that too; otherwise he would not have installed curtains that afternoon.
Gary Dickson is the publisher and editor of the Record-Bee. Contact him at gdickson@record-bee.com or 263-5636, ext. 24.
