CO- Naked pumpkin runner accepts plea deal, avoids sex-offender status

12-18-2008 Colorado:

Woman will avoid jail, sex-offender registration

The first of 12 runners cited for streaking on the Pearl Street Mall on Halloween night wearing nothing but pumpkins on their heads has accepted a plea agreement that prosecutors said would likely be offered to the others.

Natalie Ziemba, 20, of Boulder agreed Thursday to plead guilty to disorderly conduct, a petty offense.

She agreed to undergo six months of unsupervised probation, eight hours of community service and pay $27 in court fees. She will not be required to register as a sex offender, and her record will be cleared if she doesn’t commit any crimes for at least six months.

In a light-hearted moment, a prosecutor joked with Ziemba that a condition of her probation would also include “no contact with fruits or vegetables.”

“This was very uncharacteristic of me,” Ziemba told Boulder County Judge Thomas J.B. Reed.

Ziemba, a docent at the Fiske Planetarium and a junior at the University of Colorado majoring in women’s studies, attended court with her parents.

None of them wanted to comment about the case, but Ziemba’s attorney, former Boulder Municipal Judge Sheila Carrigan, said the plea agreement was the best option for her client.

“This is certainly the maximum that makes sense,” Carrigan said, although she said she questions the original misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure.

“The prosecution and the attention of the so-called naked-pumpkin runners is something I wonder about spending our resources on,” Carrigan told the judge.

Prosecutor David Chavel has been assigned all of the naked runners’ cases.

He said the agreement with Ziemba would likely represent the same offer extended to all of the accused Halloween streakers. However, he said it would be “up to each individual” to accept such an offer.

All of the cases are being handled separately, Chavel said, because some of the runners have attorneys and others do not.

He said the remaining cases involving the naked runners are in negotiations with the Boulder District Attorney’s Office. ..News Source.. by Heath Urie