Colorado woman walks nude into New Orleans airport, arrested for not wearing underwear or covering genitals
JEFFERSON PARISH, LOUISIANA: A Colorado woman has been arrested and charged after she arrived at the Louis Armstrong International Airport completely in the nude on the night of April 3, police have said.
The incident came to light after a deputy from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office was dispatched to the scene on reports that a woman, later identified as 27-year-old Mariel Vergara, had walked into the airport naked and made her way to the Spirit Airlines ticket counter.
The deputy noted that, by the time he had arrived at the scene, Vergara had already put on a dress but that she was still violating public decency laws because she was not wearing underwear, and her dress was too short to cover her genitals.
Airline officials informed the 27-year-old that she would not be allowed to travel because of her attire, or a lack of it, and asked her to leave the airport, according to the New Orleans Advocate.
She, however, ignored the requests and then once again ignored deputies' orders to leave the airport. When they tried to take her into custody, she scuffled with them.
Vergara, of Pueblo, Colorado, was eventually arrested and charged with obscenity, resisting arrest, battery of a police officer, simple battery, and remaining in a place after being forbidden.
She was reportedly being held at the Jefferson Parish Correctional Center in Gretna on a $5,000 bond when she was once again arrested and booked with battery of a corrections officer and resisting an officer by force or violence.
No details have been made available about her new charges.
Vergara's arrest comes in the heels of investigators in Michigan catching a break in a serial flashing case that had them stumped for the better part of three decades.
MEA WorldWIde (MEAWW) previously reported that Kent County sheriff’s deputies initially apprehended 54-year-old Steven Todd Pastoor for being naked from the waist down late last month but quickly realized he was a suspect in dozens of indecent exposure in Cascade Township since 2003.
In the past, police had alerted residents of a serial flasher near 28th Street SE between Cascade Road and Patterson Avenue but had failed to catch him despite detailed investigations and a number of sting operations.
"In many of the incidents, the suspect would be attired in a hat and shirt, but nude from the waist down," sheriff’s Deputy Paul VanRhee wrote in a probable-cause affidavit. "The suspect would often knock on a window to gain the attention of the unsuspecting victim, then expose himself and fondle his genitals." He often exposed himself on highways and to customers on parking lots and was eventually caught after he started targeting the same woman in 2018.
Sheriff Michelle LaJoye-Young said they had not seen "anything of this magnitude" before. "We’ve devoted a lot of resources on this guy, trying to find the guy,” she said, adding that such crimes tend to frighten victims.
Pastoor was charged with indecent exposure by a sexually delinquent person and aggravated indecent exposure in connection to his crimes and is facing life in prison.