Plumber's Helper

In a case of clear national importance, the Circuit Court for Montgomery County ruled that the intentional exposure of a man's buttocks is not a crime in this state. The Washington Post has the story here. (Alternative headline: "Don't Swoon Over a Moon.") The defendant had displayed his posterior to a neighbor and her 8 year old daughter in the course of an argument.

The court felt that it could not make a distinction between an intentionally disrespectful about-face and more visually attractive exposures:

"If exposure of half of the buttock constituted indecent exposure, any woman wearing a thong at the beach at Ocean City would be guilty," Judge John W. Debelius III said after the bench trial, reversing the ruling of a District Court judge.

One of the defendant's attorneys remarked, that the "ruling should 'bring comfort to all beachgoers and plumbers' in the state."

Hat tip to Crablaw's Maryland Weekly, which not only picked up on the WaPo story first, but got a better headline ("Moon Over Maryland").