A man arrested after he stripped naked at Port­land Inter­na­tional Air­port was found not guilty of pub­lic inde­cency at a trial Wednes­day. John Bren­nan, a frequent-flying busi­ness­man from Port­land, set off an explo­sives wand in April and stripped naked to show Trans­porta­tion Secu­rity Admin­is­tra­tion screen­ers he was not car­ry­ing a bomb. Dur­ing the trial, TSA offi­cer Steven Van­gor­don tes­ti­fied that “he started tak­ing clothes off quickly, I mean he whipped them off pretty fast.” Bren­nan said he believed he had the right to be naked. “I know the irony of tak­ing off my clothes to pro­tect my pri­vacy,” Bren­nan said. “They’re get­ting close to see­ing us naked, so I thought I’d up the ante,” he tes­ti­fied. A judge found Bren­nan not guilty of pub­lic inde­cency on the grounds that he stripped naked as a form of protest, which is pro­tected speech. But things aren’t over for Bren­nan yet. The TSA is also inves­ti­gat­ing to see if he pos­si­bly inter­fered with the screen­ing process. If they find him guilty, he could be forced to pay an $11,000 fine and be put on the no-fly list.

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