A woman has pleaded guilty taking her top off in front of her husband to avoid being added to the sex offender’s register.
Tilli Buchanan’s lawyer, Randy Richards, branded the case ludicrous after she accepted the prosecutor’s plea bargain.
Ms Buchanan, from Utah, was originally charged with three counts of class A misdemeanor lewdness involving a child after being accused of exposing her breasts to her stepchildren.
She told the court she and her husband had been installing insulation in the garage when they removed their tops to get the itchy material off their skin.
Her stepchildren came downstairs and seemed embarrassed by her nudity, but she told them her naked chest was no different to their father’s.
The incident was reported to social services while they were conducting an investigation unrelated to Buchanan’s nudity.
She had initially planned to fight the charges, but if found guilty, she faced up to ten years behind bars and being added to the sex offenders register.
Richards told the Salt Lake Tribune: ‘She would have loved to take it up on appeal but it was pretty much at my advice that she not — not because I don’t think she would win, but there’s a possibility that if we go all the way to trial, she’d be convicted by a jury and then she had to be on the sex offender registry.’
In her plea deal, Ms Buchanan admitted to exposing her breasts infront of an adult – her husband – which caused ‘alarm or distress’, the Tribune reported.
The charge will be dismissed in 12 months as long as she does not commit any crimes and pays a fine of $600.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
