One of seven students who participated in the Mifflin Streak and ended up in handcuffs has formally asked the court to drop her charges, saying her nudity was not offensive.
A writ of habeas corpus filed in Centre County Court on Wednesday asks that Elizabeth Burke's charges of open lewdness and disorderly conduct be dismissed because the commonwealth failed to provide enough evidence to support the charges.
Part of Burke's defense rests on the location of the alleged streaking incident, said her attorney, Stacy Parks Miller. The Mifflin Streak is an annual finals week tradition during which students run naked down Mifflin Road, and Parks Miller said anyone watching the May 5 event would have been expecting to see nudity.
"If she had run through downtown I wouldn't be making this argument," she said yesterday. "I wouldn't even try."
But Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira told the Daily Collegian in June the argument misinterprets the law. Open lewdness charges are valid if the action was merely likely to affront someone; whether or not the action actually affronted someone is irrelevant, he said.
"This is a novel argument that has not been raised in the context of more than 20 years [of similar cases during finals week]," he said at the time.
Madeira could not be reached as of press time yesterday.
In the habeas corpus motion, Parks Miller writes Burke's conduct did not offend onlookers because the "willing spectators" gathering to watch the Mifflin Streak knew they were going to witness nudity. To charge a person with open lewdness, members of the community must be affronted or alarmed by the person's conduct, Parks Miller said. Burke's actions did not fit this description and was not a criminal act, Parks Miller added.
Parks Miller's motion characterizes the Mifflin Streak as a harmless, "decades-old tradition" that isn't meant to offend. Because the streak took place at midnight and the area was not well lit, the motion says, unsuspecting passersby had little chance of becoming offended.
"Even if people don't agree with it, it certainly isn't a crime," Parks Miller said.
Burke chose to fight her charges instead of entering into an accelerated rehabilitative disposition because Burke doesn't believe her charges fit her crime, Parks Miller said.
"Her family were a little shocked with how serious her charges were," Parks Miller said.
Burke (sophomore-liberal arts) told the Collegian in June she wasn't intending to take part in the finals week tradition, but decided to do so on a whim when encouraged by a friend.
"I figured, we're in the middle of a college campus," she said. "It's some harmless fun ... I was not expecting to be charged."
Five other students were initially charged in connection with the streak.
Brian Michael Ian Block (sophomore-business administration), Daniel Mozer (junior-division of undergraduate studies), Christopher M. Ferry (freshman-engineering), Peter Francesco Gordon, (freshman-business administration), Jeffrey Gesner (senior-aerospace engineering) and Brian T. Bickley, (freshman-science) all faced charges of open lewdness and disorderly conduct.
Bickley had an added charge of resisting arrest.
Mozer's charges were dropped July 2, according to court documents.
