Harrisburg man who got high and naked during his first day at work can’t beat indecent assault conviction
By Matt Miller | Penn Live
Carl Gamby had a bizarre first day at work.
It was self-inflicted.
According to investigators, Gamby, 32, of Harrisburg, went into a restroom and injected himself with bath salts and fentanyl on March 28, 2019 during his first shift as a clerk at the Econo Lodge on Eisenhower Boulevard in Swatara Township.
As he stumbled out of the bathroom, he grabbed a female co-worker from behind and kissed her neck. Then he took off his shirt and repeatedly tried to get the woman to kiss him as she yelled for him to get away from her.
The woman fled to her car, called 911, and later told police that as she drove away Gamby yelled ‚”Before you leave, I just want to show you something. And that’s when he started to take his pants off.”
Gamby was naked when the cops arrived a few moments later. His clothes were strewn across the motel lobby and a used syringe was found lying on the bathroom sink. Security cameras at the Econo Lodge recorded the whole thing. The recording showed Gamby was naked by the time the woman’s car left the parking lot, investigators said.
Nearly two years after that incident, a state Superior Court panel has refused Gamby’s plea to overturn the indecent assault conviction handed to him by a Dauphin County jury.
As Judge Jacqueline O. Shogan noted in the state court’s opinion, Gamby freely admitted he deserved his other convictions for indecent exposure and possession of drug paraphernalia.
She found that his indecent assault conviction also is well-deserved, despite Gamby’s argument that kissing his co-worker on the neck didn’t rise to the level of that crime.
In reaching her conclusion, Shogan cited her court’s findings in other cases that “areas of the body other than the genitalia, buttocks, or breasts can be intimate parts of the body as contemplated by the indecent assault statute when touched for sexual gratification.”
She cited the opinion of county Judge Royce Morris, who presided at Gamby’s trial, that Gamby “did not plant a friendly but unwelcome kiss on (the woman’s) cheek. Instead, he wrapped his arm around her neck and kissed the intimate part of her neck.” Gamby pursued “increasingly intrusive gestures” as he grabbed the woman, disrobed and ran after her naked, Morris concluded.
The Superior Court decision means Gamby is stuck with the 11 ½- to 23-month county prison sentence, plus 2 years of probation the Morris imposed for the crimes. Gamby has a lengthy criminal record and is in state prison for probation violations from another cases, records show.
Reply With Quote
what the hell are bath salts, actually
Originally Posted by FBD
