A Texas man feels like he’s No. 1 now that his conviction for “shooting the bird” has been flipped.
Robert Coggin, 34, had been found guilty of disorderly conduct for making an obscene gesture with his middle finger in a road-rage style incident in the town of Lockhart two years ago.
But an appeals court has overturned the verdict, saying while the gesture may be rude, it does not necessarily rise to the level of disorderly conduct.
According to the Houston Chronicle, Coggin flashed his lights to pass a slow-moving vehicle driven by John Pastrano, a Caldwell County jailer.
Thinking he was being pulled over by a police officer, Pastrano moved to the right lane. As Coggin then passed Pastrano, he allegedly used the finger gesture many consider obscene.
Pastrano called 9-1-1, and Coggin was subsequently issued a citation for a Class C misdemeanor.
The Chronicle reports Coggin was charged under an obscure law that says “a person commits an offense if he intentionally or knowingly makes an offensive gesture or display in a public place, and the gesture or display tends to incite an immediate breach of the peace.”
Coggin denied he ever flipped the bird, but was fined $250 upon his conviction. He also spent $15,000 fighting the charge.
The 3rd Court of Appeals in Austin not only ordered Coggin’s acquittal, but it offered some historical context, quoting a Merriam-Webster definition of the “bird” as “an obscene gesture of contempt made by pointing the middle finger up while keeping the other fingers down.”
According to the Chronicle, jurists further explained that “the middle finger jerk was so popular among the Romans that they even gave a special name to the middle digit, calling it the impudent finger: digitus impudicus.
“It was also known as the obscene finger, or the infamous finger, and there are a number of references to its use in the writings of classical authors. … ” the jurists continued. “The middle-finger jerk has survived for over 2,000 years and is still current in many parts of the world, especially in the United States.”
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