BANGOR – In a decision that spelled victory for two University of Maine students, a Bangor judge found Wednesday that women jogging naked down the street did not violate the state’s indecent-conduct law.

Based purely on biology and legal wording, the judge’s decision suggests the law governing nudity is much more applicable to men than women.

“I would assume the Legislature will probably be addressing this issue,” District Court Judge Jesse Gunther said with a slight grin, shortly after making her ruling Wednesday afternoon at 3rd District Court in Bangor.

For 21-year-old Kathryn Mann of Fayetteville, N.Y., and 20-year-old Debra Ballou of Island Falls, it was a “much easier” victory than they had anticipated.

The two UM students won their case, without legal representation and after asking only one question each of the state’s sole witness.

Penobscot County Assistant District Attorney Jim Diehl put Orono police Officer John Ewing on the witness stand and questioned him for about 10 minutes about what happened in downtown Orono late Nov. 2.

Ewing described hearing whooping and yelling and then seeing Ballou and Mann “jogging” naked down Main Street. Ewing followed the pair and stopped them at the intersection of Mill and Main streets. He put them in his cruiser and took them back to Mann’s Elm Street apartment, where the women got dressed. He then charged them with indecent conduct and took them to jail, where they were released on bail.

Ewing said there were several people on the street, as it was about 11:30 on a Friday night in the college town.

“When you say the girls were naked, I assume you mean totally,” Diehl questioned.

“Not a stitch of clothing,” Ewing answered.

The state rested its case after Ballou asked Ewing if he “saw my genitalia on the evening of November 2, 2001.”

“Not that I recall,” the officer answered.

“That’s all I have,” Ballou told the court.

Mann asked the same question and got the same answer.

“I don’t think there is any point in going forward with this case,” Gunther said from the bench. “There is not enough evidence here to support a conviction.”

The judge added that fellow jurist Ronald Russell’s interpretation of the statute a few weeks earlier was accurate and that a woman simply naked in the street was not an act of indecency under Maine’s law.

Russell weighed in on the case a few weeks ago, when Mann went before him to plead guilty to the charge. Since a woman’s genitalia are primarily internal, Russell questioned whether Mann had actually violated the law, which states that people are guilty of indecent conduct if they “knowingly expose their genitals in public under circumstances that, in fact, are likely to cause affront or alarm.”

Mann promptly withdrew her plea and the trial was scheduled for Wednesday.

After the verdict, Mann and Ballou, who were properly clad throughout the proceeding, were very excited and thought they might try streaking again sometime.

“But it has to be spontaneous,” Mann said, hugging fellow student supporters outside the courtroom.

Prior to trial, the two women spent three hours preparing with an attorney provided by the university. They came to court with reams of paperwork that they didn’t end up needing.

In the two weeks since the case was made public, they have been contacted by national newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal and were told that national radio commentator Paul Harvey talked about them on his show.

Diehl said Wednesday afternoon that “the diversion is over and it’s time for everyone to get back to work.”

He argued that the law read that the genitals only have to be exposed to be in violation and not necessarily observed. Gunther disagreed.

Diehl would not comment on whether he thought the Maine Prosecutors Association would try to persuade the Legislature to change the wording in the statute so that it would allow for prosecution of naked women in public.

“I won’t guess what the Legislature or the prosecution association or even what municipalities may do. I mean, in many states such as Florida and California, the towns and cities there have ordinances against public nudity. It’s not a state issue, but a local issue,” Diehl said.

Towns in Maine don’t have ordinances prohibiting nudity in public because most officials believed it was covered by state statute.

“The bottom line is that I don’t think Orono or Bangor or any other town in Maine really has to worry about a bunch of women running around with no clothes on around here for the next couple of months, given the forecast,” Diehl said.