Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 20, 1990 TAG: 9004200895
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium
Susan Gresko last summer was wearing a crocheted bikini that left more of her anatomy exposed than Officer M.A. Eastman thought was legal. She was convicted in October 1989 of public nudity and fined $25 by General District Court Judge Virginia Cochran.
On Thursday, she appealed to Circuit Court, to no avail. Judge John Moore upheld her conviction, saying the bathing suit violated the city's public nudity ordinance.
The episode started June 25, when Gresko, then 21, was sunning at the beach wearing a white thong bikini. The two-piece bathing suit left her buttocks completely bare.
Eastman was on patrol when he saw a crowd on the beach, and pulled his car into a hotel parking lot to investigate.
"As I was looking to where the crowd was looking, I saw Gresko's suit," Eastman testified. "She immediately grabbed a towel and wrapped it around her waist."
Eastman then suggested to Gresko that she return to her hotel and change.
About 10 minutes later, Gresko came out of the hotel - this time wearing a peach-colored, knit suit, she testified.
"Is this OK, officer?" Eastman recalled Gresko asking.
"I could see right through all of it," Eastman said in describing the mesh suit.
Gresko testified that she bought the suit at a shop on the resort strip, and had no reason to believe she could not wear it on the beach.
"I told her you could buy a lot of things in Virginia Beach, but that it didn't mean you can bring them on the beach, and it doesn't mean that they're legal," Eastman testified.
Gresko said she went back into the hotel to talk to the desk clerk. Eastman and other police officers were waiting for her when she came back out still wearing the mesh suit.
"I didn't understand why it wasn't acceptable," she testified. "I thought they were being spiteful or something, trying to harass me."
She testified that she then asked Eastman if she could walk back to the beach to get her towel and suntan lotion. But the officer said she couldn't while she was wearing the suit.
As Eastman and Gresko argued over the bikini, he issued her a summons.
After the hearing Gresko said she will keep coming to Virginia Beach, but that she'll try sunning away from the resort strip.
by CNB