Federal Building's Rooftop 'Christened' by Gov. Employees

HARRISBURG, Pa.—Government attorneys have just petitioned the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals for an extra three weeks in which to file an answer to the motion for rehearing en banc that attorneys J. Michael Murray and Lorraine Baumgardner filed on behalf of Free Speech Coalition and its co-plaintiffs in the landmark 2257 case—but when and if the case is again argued in the James A. Byrne Federal Courthouse in Philadelphia, someone from the adult industry might want to sneak a peek at the building's roof to see if hanky-panky similar to what just took place in the state capital is also happening there. The 12-story Ronald Reagan U.S. Courthouse sits at 228 Walnut Street in Harrisburg, with several taller buildings (including a Hilton Hotel) nearby, and all it took was one worker or guest in one of those buildings to blow the whistle on a U.S. Marshal and his girlfriend who, according to an unnamed witness, have been seen having sex after hours on the courthouse roof. And yes, there are pictures, though every one available online has been blurred and/or censored in some way. "The raunchy snaps show a nude woman lying on the roof while a shirtless man pulls up his jeans," reported the New York Daily News. "Another shot appears to show the couple in mid-act, their clothes strewn about the roof of the U.S. courthouse in the Keystone State's capital city." No one except the couple knows for how long these liaisons have been going on, but the photographer sent the snaps to a local TV station, WHTM-TV, supposedly because she was concerned that the stratospheric coupling might be evidence of a security breach. However, Gawker reporter Gabrielle Bluestone was informed that the marshal was legally able to access the roof in the course of his duties, and in fact, the pictures were taken after working hours, so the marshal wasn't shirking any duties by being up there. Cue the paranoids! "[T]ypically, a lot of the utilities for the building are on the roof, so having unrestricted access to a roof area can put the building in jeopardy of having someone sabotage utilities for the building," claimed John Sancenito, president of Information Network Associates, a firm that does security work for the government. Sancenito also suggested that the discovery had the potential to open the marshal up to blackmail, even though by now, everyone in Harrisburg must have heard of his tryst. Bluestone had a different view of the situation. "So a guy had sex at his job after-hours," she wrote. "Truly shocking. Lighten up ya nerds!"