N.Y. Post: William C Lopez
Han Von Rittern
NOW BUY SOME CLOTHES! Zoe West, busted for stripping down during a body-painting exhibition in Times Square last year has won a settlement in her false-arrest lawsuit.
A nude model busted for dropping her drawers during a body-painting exhibition in Times Square has scored a $15,000 payout from red-faced city officials.
Zoe West, 22, plans to settle her false-arrest lawsuit today after getting a signed offer last week, says her lawyer, Ron Kuby.
“The beauty of New York City is a naked girl can win a nice suit,” Kuby quipped.
The civil-rights lawyer said cops never should have arrested West because “public nudity is legal in New York City as long as it’s done for purposes of a performance, exhibition or show.”
“Given the police idiocy, one wonders where the boobs really are,” he said.
“In order to determine that she was fully nude, you had to get much closer to her than most people get on a first date,” he noted.
West was arrested following an Aug. 30, 2011, “full-body” painting exhibition at the Crossroads of World.
After having nearly every inch of her 5-foot-2 frame covered in color, West doffed her G-string for the final strokes. But just as artist Andy Golub was finishing, cops arrived and a “visibly unnerved” Sgt. Anthony Fusaro told West he had to “bring her in,” her Manhattan federal court suit says.
She was hauled off to a police van wearing nothing but a pair of metal handcuffs.
At the Midtown South precinct house, several cops “gawked at her” for 15 minutes before she was allowed to dress and was patted down by a female cop, the suit says.
She was released without charges two hours later.
West said she had no regrets, because the cops “weren’t abusive or anything like that” and the exposure has “put me on the map in a positive way.”
“I went out on a limb to do something that I thought was a good project, and it was pretty successful and pretty exciting,” she said.
Since then, she has landed a role in an “interactive” murder-mystery play in upstate Woodstock along with other modeling projects — although “nothing quite as ostentatious” as the Times Square gig. She’s now preparing to move to Manhattan from upstate Kingston.
West said she didn’t have any plans for the settlement money but would likely “put it away” for the future.
Golub, who has made a career out of painting bodies and objects including cars, food trucks and handbags, called West’s settlement a “fair” deal.
“I definitely felt bad that she was arrested, and I feel it’s good that she stood up for her rights,” he said.
The city Law Department declined to comment.
bruce.golding@nypost.com
NEW YORK CITY - IN THE WIT OF AN EYE 