By Monte Whaley
Denver Post
June 12, 2008
http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_9564490
Rev. Robert Whipkey, who a police officer found jogging in the nude, was found guily Thursday of indecent exposure.
The jury deliberated for about two hours before returning the verdict.
Whipkey, 53, could be sentenced to anywhere from probation to 18 months in jail and could be fined anywhere from $500 to $5,000.
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| The Rev. Robert Whipkey in January, 2007. Photo by Mike Hagan |
He will be sentenced Aug. 14.
Whipkey walked the length of three football fields, past 21 homes, near a preschool and several businesses with no clothes and no regard for anyone else as dawn broke June 22, 2007, a Weld County prosecutor told jurors.
This after Whipkey jogged nude around the track at Frederick High School, showing a disregard for the community in which he lived, prosecutor Steven Wrenn said..
"We instinctively and gutterally know what he did was wrong," Wrenn said. "We know it's wrong because the law says it's wrong."
Police officers who testified Thursday said that when they confronted Whipkey, he admitted jogging nude because clothes made him sweat.
"He basically said the community has to deal with it," Wrenn said. "Well, the community doesn't have to deal with it."
Whipkey's attorney, Harvey Steinberg, said no one saw Whipkey that morning.
A neighbor who testified earlier in the day that she often saw the upper part of his buttocks in his living room window only saw a "plummer's crack," Steinberg said.
"You may not like him, you may not like what he did, but follow the law and find him not guilty," Steinberg said.
Officer Zachariah Hahn testified he was stunned to see a large, nude man walking down the street near his home that morning.
"I have seen lots of things in my line of work," said Hahn. "But I was shocked to see a man walking completely nude down the street."
If convicted, Whipkey could be listed as a sex offender.
Other witnesses this afternoon testified that they saw Whipkey walk around nude in his home.
Neighbor Robin Ciarabola lived across the street from Whipkey for three years.
She said she saw him naked at least twice a week.
"It was a pretty common occurrence," she said.
Steinberg said Whipkey was spotted by accident that morning and immediately covered up when he knew someone had seen him.
"He didn't mean to expose himself to anyone ... he's not on trial because you think he's weird."
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
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