By WILL THOMAS/myfoxdc
SPRINGFILED, Va. – A debate continues in Northern Virginia that is bringing the issue of civil liberties to the national stage. A 29-year-old Springfield man says he was making coffee in the nude was arrested after a neighbor saw him, and on Wednesday police were back out in his neighborhood looking for others who might have seen him.
Eric Williamson, 29, is a commercial diver who grew up in Hawaii and rents home with several co-workers. Williamson told FOX 5’s Will Thomas his roommates were not home and he walked into the kitchen to make coffee about 8:30 a.m. Monday.
“Yes, I wasn’t wearing any clothes but I was alone, in my own home and just got out of bed. It was dark and I had no idea anyone was outside looking in at me,” Williamson said.
But at about 8:30 a.m. on Monday morning, a neighbor walking her son to school says he deliberately exposed himself– not once, but twice. First, she says it happened as he was standing in the glass doorway in the kitchen, and then again at a front window.
“We’ve heard there may have been other people who had a similar incident,” said Mary Ann Jennings, a Fairfax County Police spokesperson.
The complaint came from an unidentified woman who was walking with a 7-year-old boy. A Fairfax County Police spokesperson said officers arrested Williamson for indecent exposure because they believe he wanted to be seen naked by the public.
On Wednesday, investigators told FOX 5 they have reason to believe there may have been another incident in which someone saw Williamson naked in front of his window. They’re asking anyone who may have seen Williamson in the nude through his windows to come forward, even if it was at a different time.
Police are especially concerned because the house is located across the street from a bus stop for school children. So on Wednesday, officers canvassed the neighborhood with fliers, asking anyone who may have been subject to an exposure to come forward.
The department spokesperson says in a rare move, they’re releasing more information about the case.
“Because this was being spun into a national story, and the idea you can’t be naked in your own house– we wanted to come forward and say in this case our officers believed there was probable cause the law had been violated,” said Jennings.
Eric has since moved out of the rental house he shared with several diving buddies. And, by phone on Wednesday, the father of a 5-year-old girl maintained his innocence, as he did Monday in an exclusive interview with FOX 5.
“I’m a loving dad– any of my friends would tell you that,” Williamson said. “There is not a chance on this planet I would ever, ever do anything like that to a kid.”
Police wouldn’t release the incident report or the name of the mother who filed the complaint. FOX 5 has learned she is a respected member of the community, and just happens to be the wife of a Fairfax County Police officer.
FOX 5 also spoke with some of Williamson’s roommates, and they said they believed Eric was drunk on Monday morning when they were all leaving for work around 5 a.m. The alleged exposure happened around 8:30 a.m. Williamson, however, says he was drinking on Sunday night, but was not drunk on Monday morning.
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