Guide Note

On August 4, 2005, Jill Coccaro was arrested for walking topless on Manhattan's Lower East Side. On June 4, 2007, she won a $29,000 settlement from the city of New York.

Fast Facts

1. Coccaro born circa 1980
2. Now uses the name Phoenix Feeley
3. In 1992: a New York State appeals court ruled that women have the same right as men to be shirtless in public
4. In 2003, another woman won $10,000 in a similar case

According to press accounts, Coccaro was working on an art show, and was walking with the top of her coverall down, on Delancey Street at 1:30 AM, when a policemen told her to cover her breasts. She refused and was arrested, and spent 12 hours in custody, undergoing inconveniences including a psychiatric evaluation at Bellevue. The district attorney's office then declined to press charges, and Coccaro was released. Coccaro also claimed that the arrest caused her to miss an appearance in family court.