Flasher who led to change in law is released from prison

AUGUSTA - A former Augusta resident whose record of exposing himself to children was so notorious that it led to a change in Georgia law is free to leave the state. <br> <br> Edward W. Fredericks, 51, was being released from Scott State Prison in Hardwick on Thursday after Judge Bernard J. Mulherin cut his 15-year sentence in half. <br> <br> Mulherin said Fredericks must report immediately to a program in Seattle when he arrives there. Like all other released prisoners, Fredericks gets a bus ticket to wherever he wants to go, according to the Department of Corrections. <br> <br> Fredericks pleaded guilty in Columbia County in 1994 to eight counts of felony public indecency. He had four convictions for public indecency in Gwinnett and Cobb counties, and his arrest record dated to 1977 and included 12 arrests for public indecency. <br> <br> His cases led then state Rep. Lynda Coker of Cobb County to sponsor legislation to increase the crime of public indecency from a misdemeanor offense to a felony crime after two prior convictions. It became law in 1991. <br> <br> District Attorney Danny Craig appealed Mulherin&#39;s decision to cut Fredericks&#39; sentence. But last month the Georgia Court of Appeals ruled the judge was within his power to alter the sentence. <br> <br> Fredericks&#39; defense attorney persuaded Mulherin last August to drop the sentence to 7.5 years in prison and 2.5 years on probation.

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