PORTLAND -- A Portland couple is making headlines around the country after the story of their Valentine "role playing" started spreading like a flash across social media.
The woman and her boyfriend were arrested after their 'role playing' led to several 9-1-1 calls and a police investigation.
At least nine police cars responded Tuesday to reports of a woman bound in duct tape and naked in a man's car.
Nikolas Alexander Harbar, 31, later told police that he and his girlfriend, 26-year-old Stephanie Morgan Pelzner, were doing some Valentine's Day role-playing.
Background: Couple arrested after naked and bound role-play
"This has now blown up into something that has become tremendously embarrassing for both of them, for their families. They feel terrible about it. They'd wished this had never happened," said Adam Greenman, the couple's attorney.
It was indeed the social media "talker" story all day Wednesday. It made headlines around the world. On Twitter, one person wrote: "I can't stop laughing..." Another wrote, "They should have stuck with chocolate and flowers."
Here is a 9-1-1 call excerpt:
911 Caller: "I said what's going on here? You having some fun or what? And he said, 'Yeah,' he just kinda nodded his head. I looked at her and asked, 'Do you want me to call the cops?' She shook her head no, but you know, her mouth was duct taped and her eyes were just kind of hazy and seemed out of it."
911 call: "He said, 'Yeah we're just having some fun' and then he said, 'Um, for the record, thanks for checking because you're the first person who's actually done anything, everyone else has just rolled their eyes.' "
Wednesday, outside the courtroom, Harbar and Morgan did not want to talk to reporters.
Their attorney, Greenman called the event "regrettable."
"In a city where the montra is 'Keep Portland Weird,' we have naked bike riders and lots of different protests and people who lead alternative lifestyles. This was a silly mistake on their part that has really surprised them with how large it's become," said Greenman.
He went on to explain that the couple has been in a committed relationship for several years and they live together in Northeast Portland.
Initially, the pair was charged with disorderly conduct. The couple's charges were later reduced to a violation. Each will now have to serve 16 hours of community service.
"Really, it seems like the problem here is, you know, doing this in public," said Lewis and Clark law professor Tung Yin.
Yin said in this case, the First Amendment woudl not protection them.
"There's really not any sort of message that they're conveying through the game and so I think it would be hard to claim that they were doing an expressive conduct in the first amendment, for 1st amendment purposes and the nudity side of it. The Supreme Court has said nudity is not protected by the first amendment," said Yin.
The couple will return to court next month for a dismissal of the charges and to get their arrests expunged.
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