Topless Activist Has 12 More Days In Jail

Tells Judge He’s Sentencing Her To Death, Says She’s Been Naked For Four Days

Fire breathing topless activist Phoenix Feeley told Spring Lake Municipal Court Judge George Pappas that he was sentencing her to death by giving her the option of serving 16 days in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution or paying a $816.oo fine for going topless in Spring Lake in 2008, according to a report on NJ.com.  Pappas gave Feeley credit for the four days she’s been incarcerated since she surrendered in Spring Lake on Monday.

“I refuse to pay a fine for an act that is legal for a man but is illegal for a woman,” 33-year-old artist Phoenix Feeley told Spring Lake Municipal Court Judge George Pappas via teleconference from the Monmouth County Correctional Institution in Freehold Township on Thursday morning.

Feeley was arrested twice in the same day in 2008 while sunbathing in Spring Lake.

Authorities charged her with violating an ordinance banning public nudity. Feeley argued that going topless was not the same as going nude, and that women, like men, should be able to bare their chests in public.

Feeley announced she was starting a hunger strike upon her refusal to pay her fines in Spring Lake on Sunday, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the circumstances of her surrender.  But her testimony before Pappas indicates she’s not eating because she doesn’t like the food at Golden’s Palace.  She said the food was “inhumane” and “worse than McDonald’s.”

Feeley also said she’s been naked in her jail cell for four days.

Cynthia Scott, spokeswoman for the Monmouth County Sheriff’s Office said, “No,” when asked if it was true that Feeley has been naked in her cell for four days.

“Inmate Phoenix Feeley remains under constant watch at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution. The correctional and medical staff continue to take the necessary steps to ensure the inmate’s health, safety and well-being, as they do with all inmates, and, will continue to do so for as long as she remains at the correctional facility, ” Scott added.

GoTopless.org plans to stage protests in support of Feeley on August 25, International Go Topless Day, which is 5 days after Feeley is scheduled to be released.

Posted: August 8th, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Crime, Crime and Punishment, Monmouth County Sheriff's Office | Tags: Jill Coccaro, Judge George Pappas, Monmouth County Correctional Institution, Phoenix Feeley, Spring Lake, Topless, topless bathing, Toplessness | 2 Comments »

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