Thanks to the Keene Sentinel’s Phil Bantz for his follow up article covering the Keene Police dropping charges against Cassidy Nicosia. Thanks also to Jay Dugay of KPD for admitting his officers were wrong. It’s rare to see that level of integrity in police departments these days. Here’s the story:
Charge dropped against teenager
Free Stater went topless in city
By PHILLIP BANTZ
Sentinel StaffCassidy Nicosia, 18, of Manchester no longer faces a misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure and lewdness.
Nicosia was arrested Aug. 23 after police received complaint calls about a topless teenager standing near the Main-Marlboro-Winchester streets roundabout with a handgun holstered on her hip.
State law does not require residents to have permits to openly carry guns, and she was not charged with any firearm-related crimes.
Last week, police prosecutors D. Chris McLaughlin and Eliezer Rivera decided to drop the charge of indecent exposure and lewdness against Nicosia. The charge was dropped because walking down the street topless does not qualify as a crime under state law, Keene police Lt. Jay U. Duguay said.
The law states that a person commits indecent exposure and lewdness if he or she fornicates, exposes genitals or performs any other “act of gross lewdness … likely to cause affront or alarm” in public.
“She wasn’t fornicating or exposing genitals — breasts aren’t genitals,” Duguay said. “No one who complained about it said that it was gross lewdness.”
While towns and cities may enact ordinances that prohibit women from going topless in public, Keene has no such ordinance, Duguay said.
“The officer (who arrested Nicosia) did what he thought was right at the time,” he said, “but sometimes you take a second look at these things and realize the law is not really worded the way you thought it was.”
Two other factors played a role in the police prosecutors’ decision to drop the charge against Nicosia, according to Duguay.
They wanted to keep the N.H. Supreme Court from having a chance to weigh in on the law, which could have happened if Nicosia was convicted and appealed, Duguay said. If asked to examine the state law dealing with indecent exposure and lewdness, the court might find that the language in the statute is too broad and then drop the entire statute, he said.
Also, Nicosia went topless to make a statement about equality, which could be viewed as a form of expression or free speech that is protected under the First Amendment, Duguay said.
“I chose to do it because … one of the most important issues to me is equality,” Nicosia said while being videotaped before her arrest. “Men can walk down the street … and, you know, not get harassed at all but yet somehow this is dirty.”
Nicosia is a member of the Free State Project, an effort to convince 20,000 people to move to the Life Free or Die state and participate in various forms of activism and run for local and state office.
Attempts to reach Nicosia before press time were unsuccessful.
Ian “Freeman” Bernard, a talk radio host and outspoken member of the project, said other women were planning to go topless outside Keene District Court during Nicosia’s arraignment, which was scheduled for Wednesday. He wasn’t sure if the topless demonstration would still occur.
While Nicosia no longer faces a criminal charge, the dismissal prevents her from challenging the law and paving the way for other women to go topless in public without risking arrest, Bernard said.
“By dropping the charge they’ve really headed off any way to challenge what they’ve done and set a precedent,” he said. “Hopefully, if this happens again, if someone like Cassidy decides she’s hot and wants to act like her male counterparts, they can be left alone.”
Phillip Bantz can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1409, or pbantz@keenesentinel.com.
I think the cop knew the charges would be dropped, but just couldn't let her "get away" with disobeying him. So, he used the arrest as punishment for her disobedience, thinking he will probably never be held accountable for false arrest.
Phil Bantz is also showing some bias against open carry by mentioning it. Why even mention it in the article, except to rile up the anti-gun people? It shouldn't even be mentioned, as it's not really relevant. He certainly didn't mention anything else she did that wasn't illegal.
What does the last sentence mean? "….if someone like Cassidy decides she’s hot….."
To be fair I think he mentioned it because the calls coming in supposedly complained of a topless woman with a gun. They didn't say a topless woman chewing bubblegum. If nothing else he is reiterating that it is legal to carry to all the anti-gun folks.
My question is when is the cop going to be arrested for kidnapping? If you or I grabbed someone off the sidewalk and locked them up we'd be in a world of trouble.
What can she do sue the City? So then she can pay herself for her own arrest through taxes.
This has got to count as maybe one of the quickest victories from activism so far, what is particularly interesting is there was no jail time. I've often thought that activism has cumulative effect, more effective when used in abundance. It looks like someone needs to add one more item to the reasons to move to Keene!
Nice job Cassidy!
Hot as in temperature. 😉 I had been awoken by Phil Bantz's call this morning.
<cite>They wanted to keep the N.H. Supreme Court from having a chance to weigh in on the law, which could have happened if Nicosia was convicted and appealed, Duguay said. If asked to examine the state law dealing with indecent exposure and lewdness, the court might find that the language in the statute is too broad and then drop the entire statute, he said.</cite>
Apparently we came very close to having a court review a law, running the extremely dangerous risk that they would determine that the law is inappropriate and change it! Whew, disaster averted!
Topless but not defenseless. I like it even better that Cassidy was armed! That makes the whole thing ever so much more excellent.
The chicken-sh!t cowardice of the prosecutors fearing that the courts would throw out the entire law is sort of funny. But, now that they have dropped the charges, she can still pursue a challenge to that law as part of a civil lawsuit. She was falsely arrested and falsely accused (and if handcuffed or jailed even briefly, then falsely imprisoned). There is recourse for her to challenge not only what was done to her, but the law providing "color of law" for the actions of the pig.
a victory for the civil disobedience crowd. The courage of that woman and her friends are amazing.
sue them for false arrest
As I've said many a time, NH is not a home rule state. I doubt that cities or towns have authority to enact a law against lewdness that is stricter than state law. Cities do have explicit authority to specify what people can wear (or not wear) at public swimming areas.
I think the wrong approach here is to try to sue for false imprisonment. The KPD officer wasn't trying to be malicious and the KPD has owned up to its mistake. The right approach would be to establish that women do have the right to be topless by holding another topless protest.
There ought to be topless female-employed drive-ins, car washes, lemonade stands, gun shows, roller derbys, etc. in NH. Maybe that would attract more Freestaters!
A woman was kidnapped and caged by men with guns for breaking no law.
Too bad the the ones who are supposed to protect us can't be a lot more careful and knowledgeable of the laws before they so quickly kidnap and cage peaceful people for laws that doesn't exist.
Oh well…guess it's time to go get some more donuts.
If I walked up to a women who wasn't harming anyone, put cuffs on her and threatened to imprison her I'd think there would be some consequences.
Apparently, if I wear blue and a shiny star while doing it I get to say "oops, my mistake. Thought I could do that, find out now I can't. Boy is my face red" and that's it.
I'm amazed at the cavalier attitude towards the affect they have, even when they are wrong about their own rules they can't get that they've messed with peoples lives.
What has happened to the folks who thought a topless protest would cause destruction and damnation of the liberty movement? Unlike their apocalyptic predictions, this has the look, sound, smell, taste and feel of a win. Yet two days after learning of the win, I still haven't seen any reaction from them.
Great point. Guess they scurried away when the top came off.