State Watch

Utah woman fights criminal charge after kids see her topless at home

A Utah woman is being charged as a sex offender after police were alerted to a past incident where her two stepchildren, ages 9 and 13, saw her topless inside her own home.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the children’s biological mother, who does not live at the residence with Tilli Buchanan and her husband, the children’s biological father, reported Buchanan to authorities claiming that she was “alarmed” about the incident.

{mosads}Buchanan said in court documents obtained by the AP that she and her husband were working in the garage and had taken their shirts off when the two children entered the house.

She then “explained she considers herself a feminist and wanted to make a point that everybody should be fine with walking around their house or elsewhere with skin showing,” according to the court documents.

“It was in the privacy of my own home. My husband was right next to me in the same exact manner that I was, and he’s not being prosecuted,” she added at the hearing, according to the AP.

Buchanan was charged with misdemeanor lewdness involving a child, which could force her to register as a sex offender if she is convicted on any of the three counts.

A Utah judge told Buchanan’s attorneys on Tuesday that the case is “too important of an issue” to be decided immediately and will go to trial in the coming months.