The author of the widely disputed New York Times article on Benghazi was arrested for posing naked as a Princeton student. Far from the moderate journalist pose he strikes now, David D. Kirkpatrick was a prominent campus progressive and activist.
Kirkpatrick was arrested for lewd conduct, a local paper reported in 1989.
Kirkpatrick charged with lewdness for posing naked on a bridge in the Princeton Township. He insisted he had been posing for a fellow student’s art project and was released.
“The distinction between art and pornography is sort of lost on Officer [Ernest G.] Silagyi,” Kirkpatrick told The Trentonian at the time of his arrest. “But he’s probably in the right.” The lewdness charge filed against him was a disorderly persons offense. The maximum fine for such offenses was $1,000.
“I regret having acted in a thoughtless manner,” a letter from Kirkpatrick read by his lawyer said at the time. “I try to make a habit of behaving with consideration of the sensibilities of others on and off campus. In this case, although I did not intend to offend anyone, I failed to use good judgment and I am not at all proud of my actions.”
The charges were dismissed, but the arrest appears to have colored Kirkpatrick’s reputation at the Ivy League university for some time afterward.
A spoof January 22, 1990 article in article in The Daily Princetonian* described “Kinky” Kirkpatrick as having a “rather unusual habit of disrobing for photographers in public places” and reported that he had posed for Playgirl and participated in the Nude Olympics.
The Princetonian article, which also includes some unlikely quotes and mentions a student for whom Princeton has no record, appears to be a fabrication.
Contacted by The Daily Caller, Kirkpatrick said, “I have never been in a Playgirl, Playboy shoot. None of that. No. That’s insane.”
* An earlier version of this article reported claims made in a Princeton student newspaper article that appears to have been fabricated. Kirkpatrick denies the reporting from the Daily Princetonian and The Daily Caller has not been able to confirm it independently.