Should a naked jogging priest be labelled a sex offender?

Thanks to this post by Corey Yung, I came across this commentary piece, headlined “The dilution of a sex offender: Making the term apply to non-sex-offenders a scary proposition.”  Here is a section of the piece that prmopts the question in the title of this post:

This week, a court declined to downgrade the conviction of Rev. Robert Whipkey, 53, to a petty offense of public indecency.  Whipkey, a Catholic priest who has been on administrative leave from the archdiocese since his arrest, was charged with indecent exposure after being caught running naked around the Frederick High School track last June.

It was 4:30 a.m. The witness was an off-duty police officer, who followed the man home, and confronted him there.

This week, a judge ruled that the conviction was constitutional. “Given the nature of sex offenders and the risk they pose to the community, the court finds that, for those who knowingly expose themselves to the public, it is reasonable that they are given a higher level of sanctions and registrations,” Weld County Judge Timothy Kerns said.

Whipkey will be sentenced in October.  He faces possible jail time and registering as a sex offender.