In Court for Disrobing, and Doing It Again
By MATT FLEGENHEIMER
Published: October 12, 2011
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Holly Van Voast has stripped naked in Times Square. She has stripped naked on the Staten Island Ferry. She has stripped naked in the middle of Grand Central Terminal — earning herself a date in Midtown Community Court on Wednesday.
And once she arrived, inside a poorly lit courtroom off Eighth Avenue, Ms. Van Voast, 45, stripped in front of, among others, Judge Rita Mella, her octogenarian lawyer and a stenographer who most likely had little idea what to type.
What’s more, Ms. Van Voast got away with it.
Appearing for a summons she received after exposing herself inside Grand Central in August, Ms. Van Voast wasted little time in building an unimaginably poor defense.
She removed her black coat to reveal her bare breasts to the court. The room went silent. “It was like, ‘What do we do now?’ ” a court officer recalled.
Judge Mella tabled the case until the afternoon, saying she would consider not filing a complaint against Ms. Van Voast if she apologized for her behavior.
Once her case resumed, Ms. Van Voast did not apologize right away. Her appointed lawyer, Franklin Schwartz, reminded her that she could face jail time if she was found to be in contempt of court.
Ms. Van Voast appeared unmoved. She spoke of the backlash she had experienced in the past several months as she has appeared naked across the city to express her frustration with stigmas against public nudity.
She said that “no one is brave enough” to join her in toplessness.
She admitted, finally, “I understand that what I did in court was out of line.”
“I’m taking your statement as an apology,” Judge Mella said.
Ms. Van Voast received an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, meaning her case will be dismissed and sealed if she remains out of trouble for six months.
Speaking outside the courtroom after the hearing, Ms. Van Voast, a photographer who lives in the Bronx, described her motivation.
“I feel that any form of nudity should be protected,” she said. “It’s the basest human state.”
She had planned Wednesday’s disrobing since receiving her summons in August, she said, though she was unable to secure her lawyer’s support.
“My lawyer has been sort of confused by my behavior,” Ms. Van Voast said of Mr. Schwartz, who was assigned to the case only on Wednesday.
Mr. Schwartz, 89, said he had never seen anything quite like this in his 62 years of practicing law
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nytimes.com/2011/10/13/nyregion/answering-a-summons-on-disrobing-and-disrobing-in-court.html?_r=3&ref=nyregion
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