http://www.projo.com/cgi-bin/ap_story.pl/ne/1012462002.p.htm

Judge: Streaking legal for Maine women


BANGOR, Maine (AP) - Female streakers: get on your marks, get set, go.

A judge found Wednesday that two undergraduates at the University of Maine did not violate the state's indecent conduct law by jogging naked.

Debra Ballou of Island Falls and Kathryn Mann of Fayetteville, N.Y. won the case without hiring a lawyer and by asking just one question of the prosecution's only witness.

Maine law states that people are guilty of indecent conduct only when they "knowingly expose their genitals in public."

Ballou, 20, asked the arresting officer whether he saw her genitals last Nov. 2.

"Not that I recall," replied Orono police officer John Ewing.

"That's all I have," Ballou told the court.

Judge Jesse Gunther of the 3rd District Court in Bangor said that a woman naked in the street is not an indecent act under Maine law because a woman's genitals are primarily internal.

Gunther grinned slightly as he said, "I would assume the Legislature will probably be addressing this issue."

The incident began when the two women were seen running naked in downtown Orono late in the evening.

Ewing stopped the pair and drove them to Mann's apartment to get dressed. He then charged them with indecent conduct and took them to jail, where they were released on bail.

After the verdict, Mann and Ballou said they might try streaking again, but it would have to be spontaneous.