RALEIGH, N.C., Aug. 20 -- Mooning someone may be tasteless, but a North Carolina Court of Appeals has ruled that it's legal under state law. The court says that baring one's buttocks in public doesn't violate the state's indecent exposure law, because the law's definition of private parts only covers reproductive organs.
The decision stems from a case involving a man who dropped his shorts to his ankles as a Charlotte woman walked up a flight of stairs to her condominium. Mark Edward Fly appealed his misdemeanor conviction for the 1995 incident. The appeals court ruled 2 to 1 that there was no evidence Fly intended to show his private parts. State prosecutors could appeal the decision to the North Carolina Supreme Court. North Carolina's law makes it illegal to 'willfully expose the private parts of his or her person in any public place and in the presence of any other person, or persons of the opposite sex.' In a dissenting opinion, Judge Ralph Walker said 'the buttocks are a part of the human body which morality and decency require to be covered in the presence of others.' Fly's public defender, Karen Eady, says the ruling suggests 'we can go around mooning anyone in North Carolina that we want to.' ---
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