PLEASANT GAP, Pa. – After four lawyers and $14,000 in legal bills, a 63-year-old Pleasant Gap man who doesn’t like it hot has been cleared on an indecent exposure conviction.

A state appeals court last week overturned the indecent exposure conviction of Charles Stitzer, who was wearing only shoes and a watch while gardening in his back yard nearly two years ago when he was arrested after a neighbor complained to police.

Is he happy?

“You’re damn right, you better believe it the strain I’ve been under,” Stitzer said Monday. “It’s been a hell of a load on my mind. It’s been a big financial drain.”

The decision was filed last week by a three-judge Superior Court panel, which directed Centre County Court to acquit Stitzer, who lives at 217 E. College Ave. in Pleasant Gap.

Stitzer was observed nude in his back yard by a neighbor, Pam Watkins, from a distance of 60 to 65 yards at sunset on June 22, 2000. Watkins could not be reached for comment Monday.

Stitzer’s case at first was dismissed at a preliminary hearing by District Justice Brad P. Lunsford, but he was rearrested and convicted at a December 2000 jury trial presided over by Centre County President Judge Charles C. Brown Jr.

After Stitzer was convicted, Brown sentenced him in January 2001 to two years probation.

The appeals court said backyard nudity observed from such a distance at sunset did not satisfy an element of the law that requires others to be present for indecent exposure to occur.

“We vacate the conviction and remand for the trial court to enter a judgment of acquittal,” the appeals court ruled last week.

State College lawyer Andrew Shubin, who represented Stitzer in the appeal, said the appellate court decision upheld a broad civil liberty, especially significant since the issue of civil liberties has come under new scrutiny since Sept. 11.

“The principle that’s important here is that a person has a right to do on his property things that he may not have a right to do in public,” Shubin said. “If you don’t like what you see, you avert your eyes.

“If he had done that at a baseball game, it would have been different,” Shubin said.

Assistant District Attorney Lance Marshall, who prosecuted Stitzer, said Monday that he does not plan to appeal the appellate court judgment.

Stitzer, a retired mechanical draftsman, said he likes to keep cool on hot summer evenings, sometimes wears a thong and often sat out nude on his side porch in the dark, though neighbors’ floodlights have lately lit up the night.

“Why sit out there with those hot shorts on?” Stitzer said. “Why shouldn’t I sit out there without anything on?”

In nine days, a trio of strangers, chosen in secrecy, will arrive at the large, white prison that sits on a hillside here. Shortly before 10 p.m., they will insert catheters into both of Keith Zettlemoyer’s arms, pump poison into his veins and kill him. (more…)

Leon Cassady remembers the day his turn came. (more…)

In nine days, a trio of strangers, chosen in secrecy, will arrive at the large, white prison that sits on a hillside here. Shortly before 10 p.m., they will insert catheters into both of Keith Zettlemoyer’s arms, pump poison into his veins and kill him. (more…)

Although an extensive debate between Pennsylvania State University Judicial Affairs and Olivia Guevara ended last week, the motives behind her prosecution are still being questioned. (more…)

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As Penn State University President Graham Spanier prepared to offer his annual State of the University address to an audience in the school’s Eisenhower Auditorium eight days ago, a line of nine students stood and turned their backs on him. (more…)

STATE COLLEGE (AP) — A computer engineering major at Pennsylvania State University who helped hang a protest banner outside a National Governors Association reception on campus faced defiant trespass charges that were later dropped.

But Justin Leto was placed on deferred suspension by the university’s Judicial Affairs Office. He is among several students voicing concern that the state’s largest university doles out swift punishment to some — whether or not they are convicted of anything in court — while the Nittany Lions’ starting quarterback Rashard Casey faces assault charges in New Jersey and no discipline on campus.

“We think they’re going to bend over backward to find Rashard Casey innocent. But they’ll do whatever it takes to find other people guilty,” Leto said.

Other critics of the university’s student justice system say it rushes cases through a process that does not ensure Fifth Amendment rights or that they be represented by attorneys.

“The law’s clear. The university can act to discipline students, and their Fifth Amendment rights don’t have to be applied when the students are going through that disciplinary process,” said Andrew Shubin, a State College lawyer representing three students cleared of charges in connection with hanging the banner more than two months ago.

“But that doesn’t mean it’s wise or fair,” Shubin said.

Casey was charged May 14 with assault in an attack on an off-duty police officer outside a bar in Hoboken, N.J. Police say Casey and another man kicked the victim until he was unconscious. Casey denies the charges. University spokesman William Mahon said Penn State’s disciplinary system is fair, and has received “overwhelming” approval from students who have faced it.

“The system’s a good system, in place for many years,” Mahon said.

Complaints about how the university has handled Casey’s case emerged when students arrested early July 16 for what authorities called “riotous behavior” found themselves quickly facing suspensions before their cases went to court.

That night 28 people — including 18 Penn State students — were arrested after a mini-riot near the campus at the conclusion of the annual Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts.

Two years ago some 1,500 students gathered as rioters during the same festival, and set bonfires, tore down light posts, battered storefronts and injured more than a dozen police officers.

July’s melee was smaller, with the most serious charge aggravated assault for throwing a rock at a police officer. Most were accused of failure to disperse and resisting arrest.

Of 11 students disciplined by Penn State for their roles in the mini-riot, five were suspended for a year or given probation. The other six are appealing their punishments, including suspensions.

One of those, Martin Austermuhle, is a senior majoring in international politics who is attending Penn State on a student visa. He said he was charged with failure to disperse, though he wasn’t a rioter. His case has yet to go to court.

Penn State suspended him for a year. He could lose his visa and be sent home to Costa Rica.

“I’m willing to take a penalty, but this indirect deportation is too much,” he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Mahon said the university met with police and viewed videotapes. “I’m not surprised that some people facing discipline would have complaints,” he said.

Others support the university’s swift action, particularly in light of the riot two years ago.

“The riot is troubling because it happened two times now, and we don’t want it becoming part of the culture,” said Peter Marshall, manager of State College Borough.

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In light of recent violence and threats to federal judges, the possibility of threats on local judges and attorneys has caused some concern, but most officials agree that Centre County doesn’t have a serious problem. (more…)

Battle over the right to bare more than arms

America’s a nation where a person is free to say what he wants, vote as he chooses and now, maybe drop his trousers in the back yard on a hot summer night. (more…)