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Federal prosecutor charged with mooning her neighbors

The Associated Press
Friday July 20, 2001

SALT LAKE CITY — An assistant U.S. attorney has been charged with lewdness for allegedly mooning a group of neighbors and exposing her breasts after losing her temper on the street outside their home. 

Laurie Sartorio, 45, a criminal prosecutor for the U.S. attorney’s office, was walking two dogs last Thursday about 8:50 p.m. when they became disobedient and she began to yell at them, according to a report filed with the Salt Lake City Police Department. 

Sartorio then began shouting expletives at a group of nearby neighbors, said Fred Louis, spokesman for the department. She allegedly asked the group, which included a 2-year-old, what they were looking at and if they wanted to take a picture. 

She then made an obscene hand gesture, Louis said. 

The woman walked down the street about 50 feet, pulled down her pants and mooned the group, the report said, then she pulled up her shirt and exposed her breasts to them. The woman was not wearing underwear or a bra, according to the report. 

Louis said Sartorio walked another 20 feet and did both things again. 

Sartorio was followed by one of the neighbors to a home where she was identified by police later in the evening. 

“You would think someone in this capacity would not lose their control and do something like this,” Louis said. 

Sartorio denied all charges in a police report, but when reached by phone Thursday afternoon said she could not comment on the charges. 

The case has been referred to the Justice Department’s inspector general. T.J. Bondurant, assistant inspector general, declined comment. 

Sartorio has been charged with a class A misdemeanor for lewdness involving a child. Conviction carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a $2,500 fine.