County News

Naked pumpkin runner accepts plea deal, avoids sex-offender status

Woman will avoid jail, sex-offender registration

Thursday, December 18, 2008

An unidentified man runs along Pearl Street at the start of the 10th annual Naked Pumpkin Run in Boulder on Halloween night.

Photo by Joshua Lawton

An unidentified man runs along Pearl Street at the start of the 10th annual Naked Pumpkin Run in Boulder on Halloween night.

The first of 12 runners cited for streaking on the Pearl Street Mall on Halloween night wearing nothing but pumpkins on their heads has accepted a plea agreement that prosecutors said would likely be offered to the others.

Natalie Ziemba, 20, of Boulder agreed Thursday to plead guilty to disorderly conduct, a petty offense.

She agreed to undergo six months of unsupervised probation, eight hours of community service and pay $27 in court fees. She will not be required to register as a sex offender, and her record will be cleared if she doesn’t commit any crimes for at least six months.

In a light-hearted moment, a prosecutor joked with Ziemba that a condition of her probation would also include “no contact with fruits or vegetables.”

“This was very uncharacteristic of me,” Ziemba told Boulder County Judge Thomas J.B. Reed.

Ziemba, a docent at the Fiske Planetarium and a junior at the University of Colorado majoring in women’s studies, attended court with her parents.

None of them wanted to comment about the case, but Ziemba’s attorney, former Boulder Municipal Judge Sheila Carrigan, said the plea agreement was the best option for her client.

“This is certainly the maximum that makes sense,” Carrigan said, although she said she questions the original misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure.

“The prosecution and the attention of the so-called naked-pumpkin runners is something I wonder about spending our resources on,” Carrigan told the judge.

Prosecutor David Chavel has been assigned all of the naked runners’ cases.

He said the agreement with Ziemba would likely represent the same offer extended to all of the accused Halloween streakers. However, he said it would be “up to each individual” to accept such an offer.

All of the cases are being handled separately, Chavel said, because some of the runners have attorneys and others do not.

He said the remaining cases involving the naked runners are in negotiations with the Boulder District Attorney’s Office.

Ten of the 12 people ticketed in the Halloween run had courts dates Wednesday, but none showed up. Chavel said the remaining cases involving the naked runners are in negotiations with the Boulder District Attorney’s Office, and two of the ticketed runners have a Jan. 12 court date.

Police have warned runners in the past that the activity isn’t legal, but this year was the first time officers showed up en masse to enforce the law.

Boulder Police Chief Mark Beckner has previously said indecent exposure was the charge that best fit the violation.

On Thursday, Boulder police issued a written statement about the plea agreement.

“The decision was made by the District Attorney’s Office, which consulted with the department. Chief Mark Beckner believes this is an appropriate disposition. As for future violations, Boulder officers will continue to issue citations or make arrests based on the law as it is written. It is — and will remain — the province of the District Attorney’s Office to determine whether other charges are possible.”

Comments

Posted by tomebaden on December 19, 2008 at 2:37 a.m. (Suggest removal)

This is insane! I cant believe anyone is even mentioning the sex offender registration in conncection with this. Get off it already! Nudity is not sex, and exposure in public of private parts as part of such a non-sexuall act is not incecent for the purposes of the indecent exposure statute which sais that such exposure must be done lewdly, with and intent to draw attentions to ones exposed genitalia for sexual gratification annoyance or affront. That is sexual modifies all three.

The District attorney has not cards to bargain here with, these kids should not be toled they may face sex offender registration they are being let down by their defense attorney and bluffed by the DA. Shame on those power tripping pricks! That DA should not say things like "stay away from vegitables" because he is playing off the premis that he is in charge and that these kids are fortunate that he gave them a deal. Screw him!

Go to http://meganslaw.angelfire.com, I have lots of things on sex offender issues and youtube videos.

Posted by amy on December 20, 2008 at 10:17 a.m. (Suggest removal)

Thanks for following up on this, I've been covering this case as well.

Today on Contentious.com, I cited your reporting:
http://tinyurl.com/9j8yrx

I believe the larger issue here is: What can be done to ensure that Boulder cops enforce the law in a way that recognizes that celebratory streaking is not a sexual assault, and to cite offenders accordingly?

The police statement you quoted indicates a clear intention that the cops will keep citing streakers for indecent exposure. In my post, I've proposed some options citizens might take to curb the cops' ability to bully and intimidate citizens in this way. I'd love to hear what you and your readers think about this.

Thanks,

- Amy Gahran

Posted by tomebaden on January 20, 2009 at 9:31 p.m. (Suggest removal)

They should only look for disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace. I am sick of people and their petty hangups about nudity and sex. Just absolutly sick of their pathetic hypocrisy.