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An appeals court reinstated a charge of indecent exposure against a woman who disrobed in front of a 14-year-old boy.
The three-member panel overturned a ruling by Riverside County Superior Court Judge Robert W. Armstrong, who had dismissed charges against Alexis Luz Garcia last year, ruling that the law making it a misdemeanor for someone to expose "his person" didn't apply to women.
In a ruling issued Aug. 28, the appeals panel noted that another section of state law says that "words used in the masculine gender include the feminine and neuter."
"We can find no logical or reasonable basis for concluding women are incapable of committing the crime of indecent exposure," the panel wrote in its 13-page decision.
Garcia, 41, of Corona, was cited in May 2006 after parents of a neighbor boy said she displayed full-frontal nudity as he played basketball.
Prosecutors said Garcia had complained that the 14-year-old was making too much noise while playing basketball. When her complaints went unheeded she allegedly went out onto her sundeck and disrobed.
Prosecutors said the boy's parents called police after the woman threatened to disrobe every time the boy played basketball.
Garcia was charged with the exposure count and with willfully resisting a police officer for refusing to open her door when the officer tried to talk to her.
Deputy District Attorney Matt Reilly said the decision "reinforces that both men and women need to be treated equally under the law."
A call to Deputy Public Defender William A. Meronek, who argued the appeal for Garcia, was not immediately returned Wednesday.
If convicted, Garcia faces up to a year in county jail and would have to register as a sex offender for life.
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