The Minnesota Supreme Court stunned court watchers this week after it overturned a conviction involving a woman who was charged with indecent exposure.

According to MPRNews, the state's high court decided to overturn a conviction of a woman who was arrested and charged with exposing her breasts in a Rochester parking lot in 2021.

At the time, Eloisa R. Plancarte, 28, was charged by Olmsted County prosecutors with a misdemeanor for exposing her breasts at a gas station. Witnesses had called police, complaining of the woman walking around topless.

She was ultimately found guilty of indecent exposure.

What happened?

In 2022, Judge Joseph Chase found Plancarte guilty of indecent exposure, and after an appeal, her conviction was upheld by the state's appeals court in 2024, setting up a legal battle in the state's Supreme Court system.

"Ms. Plancarte is an exhibitionist.” the judge said at the time of her conviction.

He added that Plancarte “was not at a beach designated for nude bathing by people who enjoy that sort of thing. She was not in a locker room or public lavatory which strangers might share in a state of undress. Ms. Plancarte was strolling across the parking lot of a gas station."

However, when the case finally made it to the state's high court, the court agreed that, according to Minnesota statute, the woman was not acting "lewdly" -- in other words, she wasn't acting in a sexual manner as she strolled around topless at the gas station.

The outlet noted:

Writing for the majority, Justice Karl Procaccini, quoting Chase’s verdict, noted that the Olmsted County judge determined that Plancarte had not engaged “in any type of overt public sexual activity.”

"[T]he State has not met its burden of proving that Plancarte’s exposure was lewd, because none of the evidence in the record suggests that her conduct was of a sexual nature,” the state Supreme Court justice wrote.

Clarity

Attorney Jess Braverman with the nonprofit group Gender Justice filed an amicus brief with the Minnesota Supreme Court on behalf of the woman who was charged.

He stressed that people walking around topless without being lewd about it are not at risk for indecent exposure charges.

"The law still stands. Nothing about the law has really changed,” Braverman said. “It’s just that courts have clarified how to interpret it, and that clarification is basically that just saying a woman was outside, she exposed her breasts, that alone won’t cut it. There has to be something else."

Only time will tell if the ruling affects others charged with the same crimes.