what's happening in the sexual and social arenas
MISTAKEN IDENTITYBARTOW, FLORIDA -- A lawyer's imaginative plan to demonstrate the unreliability of eyewitnesses resulted in the conviction of an innocent courthouse bystander who had not even been charged with a crime. The attorney, defending a young black man accused of assault, battery and resisting arrest, asked another black youth to go into the courtroom and merely sit in the defendant's place. Assured that he would not get into any trouble, the uninvolved party did just that, was duly identified as the culprit, convicted by the judge over protests of the lawyer and taken to jail to await sentencing. Said the judge, "Three witnesses positively identified him, whoever he is." After some further discussions, the young nondefendant was released and conviction vacated.
BARE FACTS
SOUTH BAY, CALIFORNIA -- A 32-year-old woman accused of taking off her clothes and shouting "Praise Jesus!" during a church service arrived in municipal court to answer a charge of indecent exposure and repeated her earlier performance. A deputy district attorney reported, "I saw this lady sans raiment pushing her way through the crowd and entering the area between the spectators and the counsel table. The cheers and applause followed her as she went southbound through the courtroom." After two marshalls persuaded her to put on her clothes, she pleaded guilty to the original charge, received a two-year probated sentence and was ordered to a hospital for a mental examination.
Elsewhere: Police in Hermiston, Oregon, arrested a woman at a local lounge, naked except for knee socks and who was about to leave in the company of four apparently intoxicated men. According to the cops, the men identified themselves variously as the woman's husband, brother, cousin and uncle, but none knew her name.
In Falls Church, Virginia, an accused woman shoplifter managed to prove her innocence by taking off all her clothes before a crowd of amused customers.
