Myron Lee Kipp, right, with his lawyer, Bill Albright
A 77-year-old Utah man charged with lewdness after sunbathing nude in his backyard agreed to a plea deal Tuesday that keeps his record clean as long as he wears a swimsuit.
Myron Lee Kipp pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges in Farmington. But under the terms of the deal with prosecutors, the pleas won’t be recorded if Kipp stays covered over the next year…
Kipp has been taking in the sun in the buff for 30 years, often falling asleep in his backyard, and it wasn’t a problem until new neighbors moved in his lawyer Bill Albright, said.
Last year, police said children could see the nude Kipp from a church parking lot behind his house, which has a chain-link fence without privacy slats and is located about 20 miles north of Salt Lake City. When an officer approached him, Kipp said he could do what he wanted in his own backyard, according to court records.
He was arrested and charged with seven misdemeanor counts of lewdness, four involving a child. The case appeared headed for a trial that would have taken the jury on a trip to see the house…
Kipp wore a T-shirt with a green argyle pattern with jeans at a St. Patrick’s Day court appearance Tuesday. He nodded and answered affirmatively in response to a judge’s questions, and confirmed his plea wasn’t given under the influence by saying, “I don’t drink, smoke or anything else.”
A search of Utah court records shows only a single traffic ticket, more than a decade old, on Kipp’s record before the lewdness charges…
Judge David Connors also imposed $250 in court fees.
All that’s about as invasive ands creepy as I would expect in Utah.
Meanwhile, in North Carolina, this happened:
A Charlotte man who stands at his front door naked is upsetting his neighbors, but police say he is not doing anything illegal.
People in the north Charlotte neighborhood called police Friday to lodge the latest of what officials say are four complaints so far this year.
Neighbors say the man stands naked at his door several times a week, and he has been doing it for years. They have taken pictures and video and hope the images will prompt the homeowners association to file some type of nuisance complaint.
A spokeswoman for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department says while the man may be annoying the neighborhood, his actions don’t rise to the level of bringing charges because he’s on his own property.
So, being naked on your own property – even answering the door or gazing out at the world passing by – is OK in Charlotte, North Carolina. But, don’t try to catch some rays in Utah without covering your butt.
Have to say the dude in Utah seems closer to sane.
I really despise the implication, evident in these kinds of cases, that children are somehow harmed by the sight of a nude human body. It doesn’t seem that the man sunbathing is his yard was doing anything predatory or sexual or indecent. I would have thought little of such a sight when I was a child and my parents would never have seen it as an issue either. Playing the child card is just a lowly way of asserting confused Puritanical (i.e., conservative) morality.