Equal Rights Rock

Posted on June 18th, 2007 by Christopher.
Categories: Current Events & Politics.

Who knew it was legal for a woman to walk around with her breasts exposed in New York?

Well, one woman did - and a cop didn’t - and now she has forced the city to fork over a $29,000 legal set tlement for ille gally busting her when she law fully bared her bosom and went for a stroll two years ago.

Jill Coc caro, a 27-year-old East Village artist who now goes by the name Phoenix Fee ley, went au na turel on Aug. 4, 2005, when she pulled down the front of her paint er’s jumpsuit dur ing an art-show promotion to cool off.

In 1992 a state appeals court ruled that if men could expose their chests in public women could not be pun ished for doing the same.

In 2003, high-profile law yer Ron Kuby had used the law change to win a $10,000 settlement from the city for a model who’d been busted wearing a thong and body paint to the Coney Island Mer maid Parade.

But that didn’t stop a cop, who spotted Fee ley at about 1:30 a.m. strolling topless on Delancey Street, telling her to cover up.

When Feeley refused - informing the officer she had a legal right to be naked to the waist, just like a man - the officer took her into custody for indecent exposure.

“I did not do anything to anyone on that street, I did not harm anyone,” she recalled. “I was so not resisting arrest.”

But Feeley spent 12 hours in custody before the officer told her the District Attorney’s Office had declined to press charges.

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