Police ticket woman for public nudity again
 
By LORI PILGER / Lincoln Journal Star
Thursday, Mar 30, 2006 - 04:54:09 pm CST
 
A Lincoln woman who gained police attention in 2003, when nude pictures of her taken at a downtown bar showed up online, has again found herself in legal trouble.

Three weeks ago, police ticketed Melissa Harrington at Cheerleaders Bar for allegedly violating the city’s public decency ordinance.

Lincoln Police Capt. David Beggs said officers saw her hosting a show there, nude from the waist up.

Police say she violated the part of the city ordinance that prohibits the “showing of the female breast with less than a fully opaque covering on any part of the areola and nipple.”

But Harrington said she wasn't doing anything wrong because her nipple and areola were covered with a light- to medium-pink paint.

She said she planned to fight the ticket and didn’t plan to change her routine.

Apparently she didn’t.

On Wednesday, police ticketed her again for the same thing.

Officer Katherine Finnell said a plainclothes officer went to the same bar and witnessed Harrington there, nude from the waist up, and rubbing against a patron of the bar as she danced.

Police cited her on allegations of public nudity, public indecency and prohibited sexual contact.

This time the bar owner and manager were ticketed, too.

The manager of Cheerleaders, John Caporale, and the owner, Dean Borgmann, both stood accused of permitting the sexual contact after having been informed that what Harrington was doing was against city ordinance, Finnell said. Caporale was taken to jail, but his bond was posted that night.

By Thursday afternoon, none of the three had been charged. The City Attorney’s Office was waiting for police reports.

Borgmann said he wasn’t at the bar when it happened but got a call to go there about midnight.

It didn’t come as a complete shock, he said. Police told them they would be keeping an eye on the place, and a plainclothes officer was there two weeks ago, he said.

But Borgmann said it’s still up in the air what they might be charged with, if anything.

“As far as we’re concerned, we did nothing wrong,” he said.

The other person involved in the alleged contact was employed by Harrington, Borgmann said.

Ultimately, he said, it would be a matter for the courts to decide.

Reach Lori Pilger at 473-7237 or lpilger@journalstar.com.