An Elizabethtown woman convicted of open lewdness was sentenced to two months to a year in prison on June 17 in Lancaster County Court.

Elisabell Berrios, 36 of the 100 block of W. Hummelstown Road, was sentenced by Lancaster County Judge Thomas Sponaugle on the third-degree misdemeanor conviction following a June trial in which the jury deliberated for 8 minutes.

On September 16, 2021, around 10:19 p.m., two Lancaster City Bureau of Police Officers responded to the intersection of N. Franklin and E. Orange Streets. Upon arrival, Berrios was found lying on the hood of a silver Volkswagen sedan with two children aged 8 and 12 in the backseat of the vehicle. Inmates within Lancaster County Prison could be heard shouting.

A prison K9 officer witnessed the preceding incident and reported that Berrios had exposed her breasts from on top of the vehicle resulting in increased yelling from inmates within Lancaster County Prison. The children were running around the car and swinging from a speed limit sign during this time.

Berrios went to see a specific inmate who was in jail for a separate case involving her.

Assistant District Attorney Fritz Haverstick prosecuted the case and argued that Berrios showed no remorse, was belligerent toward the responding officers, who were just there to do their jobs, and bragged about her behavior afterward.

Haverstick then stated jail time was warranted, to which Judge Sponaugle agreed.

Defense argued that jail time was not warranted as Berrios needed to care for her children.

“I don’t think people are able to use their children as shields from going to jail,” Judge Sponaugle said.

Judge Sponaugle also mentioned the fact it was around 10:30 p.m. on a Thursday, which was a school night, and the defendant drove all the way from Elizabethtown to expose herself at the prison with her children in the car.

Lancaster City Bureau of Police Officer Charley Darkes-Burkey filed charges.

MEDIA CONTACT: Sean McBryan, semcbryan@co.lancaster.pa.us; Twitter: @SeanMcBryanLanc.