Underwear in Public Not Indecent, Court Says
Date: 31-Aug-04
Country: USA
Members of the group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals were arrested and charged with indecency and disturbing the peace after a chilly rally in March near Harvard University where they stripped to their skivvies and staged a nearly naked pillow fight to protest against fur.
Six months and three court dates later, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, judge threw out the indecency charges against all six PETA members.
All but one of the protesters - PETA Vice President Dan Mathews - were also cleared of disturbing the peace. Mathews was ordered to pay a $300 fine.
Mathews told Reuters he was relieved that the indecent exposure charges were dismissed, noting that a conviction on such a charge would have forced him and the other demonstrators to register as sex offenders in Massachusetts.