Free Speech

62-Year-Old Protester Acquitted on All Charges for Wearing Penis Costume

The judge felt there was probable cause for an arrest but he declined to go so far as to convict.

Joe Lancaster | 4.16.2026 1:04 PM

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(Adani Samat)

This week, a 62-year-old Alabama woman faced a criminal trial for wearing an inflatable penis costume during a protest.

After three hours of testimony, a judge acquitted her of all charges—a welcome result for her free speech rights.

In October 2025, Jeana Renea Gamble wore the offending phallus—holding a "No Dick-Tator" sign—at a "No Kings" protest. Responding to the scene, Cpl. Andrew Babb of the Fairhope Police Department threw Gamble to the ground and arrested her for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Prosecutors later added charges of disturbing the peace and giving a false name to law enforcement—the latter because when she was asked her name, Gamble replied "Aunt Tifa," a play on antifa, the shorthand used by antifascist activists.

The case was flawed from the start: Babb's body camera footage shows his tone was aggressive as soon as he arrived, and he threw her to the ground less than a minute after arriving, even though she was walking away from him at the time.

Besides, wearing an offensive costume is fully protected by the First Amendment.

Predictably, the prosecution faced an uphill battle. Judge Haymes Snedeker dropped the false name charge before the trial even began. And prosecutors struggled to establish why Gamble should even have been arrested in the first place, much less prosecuted.

"She was obstructing traffic and was a safety risk," Babb testified at trial, adding that he tried to de-escalate the situation. The prosecution played "a single non-emergency phone call to police from a driver who was offended by the display," according to Courthouse News.

But as defense attorney David Gespass noted, that wasn't what Babb said on the scene. Bodycam footage shows that before he threw Gamble to the ground, Babb had only objected to her costume, demanding to know "how you would explain to my children what you're supposed to be." Even after the arrest, Babb took a phone call in which he says he told Gamble, "This is a family town….Being dressed like that is not going to be tolerated." He never says anything about Gamble obstructing traffic.

"That's all he talked about when he was confronting her was, 'I am not going to put up with this in my town,'" Gespass said at trial. "Certainly, if you watch the video, he is not de-escalating anything. He approached her aggressively."

"There is no constitutional right to wear a total erect penis on the side of the road," said prosecuting attorney Marcus McDowell. "It was in the middle of the day, and during a [youth] baseball season."

"Imagine going to the trouble of going to law school, passing the bar, standing up in front of a judge, and being this wrong," First Amendment attorney Adam Steinbaugh of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression responded on X, adding, "This may be the most eye-rolling invocation of 'what about the children' I've heard."

Ultimately, the judge was unswayed. "There was probable cause for arrest, but I can't convict and sentence someone unless I'm sure," Snedeker said, acquitting on all charges. Gespass, Gamble's attorney, disagreed about the probable cause and said they may sue the department for violating Gamble's First Amendment rights.

"Free speech wins!" Gamble proclaimed after the acquittal, addressing the crowd of supporters that had gathered outside the courthouse. "We have civil rights in Fairhope!"

"We have some growing and relearning to do about the rights the citizens of this town have," she added. "And as Alabamians, we dare defend our rights, and this fight is not over."

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Joe Lancaster is an assistant editor at Reason.

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