MINNEAPOLIS (AP)
-- The prosecutor compared the indecency case against former Vikings running back Moe Williams to buying a house, "it's all about location, location, location," he said.
Prosecutor Steve Tallen gave his closing Thursday morning, urging a jury to find Williams guilty because he fondled the breasts of a dancer in a public space aboard a tour boat on Lake Minnetonka in suburban Minneapolis.
Defense lawyer Joe Friedberg countered in his summary that Williams was not guilty because he did not intend to break the law and that his brief encounter with the dancer was in a remote part of the boat.
"There is an element of intent here, and that's what Moe Williams didn't have," he said.
The charges stem from a party attended by Williams and several other Minnesota Vikings that prosecutors characterized as a "floating orgy" that offended and frightened the ships' crew.
The jury began deliberating late Thursday morning.
Williams, 32, is the first player to be tried on charges of indecent conduct, disorderly conduct and lewd or lascivious behavior. Two other Vikings, tackle Bryant McKinnie and cornerback Fred Smoot, face the same charges and are scheduled to go on trial in May. Charges against former quarterback Daunte Culpepper were dropped.
The prosecution presented its witnesses Wednesday. Moe, who sat quietly in a dark suit throughout, didn't testify and the defense called no witnesses of its own.
The prosecution's key witnesses, Jamie Lyons and Erika Chepokas, were working as waitresses on the "Avanti" -- a boat owned by Al & Alma's Restaurant and Cruises -- Oct. 6 when Vikings rookies took the veterans out for a cruise.
Lyons and Chepokas described women carrying bags aboard the boat with team members, then quickly changing into thongs and scanty tops. Lyons and Chepokas said the women began giving lap dances to men on the boat, and eventually some of them took off all of their clothes.
"After we left the dock, it turned into a strip club," Lyons testified.
The women each said they came across Williams and a woman who were together in a tight space in the lower part of the boat, near a bathroom. Both said Williams was touching the woman, including on her breasts.
"I wish I hadn't," Lyons said when Tallen asked for her reaction to seeing Williams and the woman dancing with him.
Friedberg said in his opening statement Wednesday that Williams spent most of the night in the boat's bar area, drinking cranberry vodkas. He didn't deny that Williams had contact with one of the dancers, but said it wasn't against the law.
"Mr. Williams was having a good time with a woman who was 100 percent consenting," Friedberg said.
The boat scandal was a low point for a disappointing season for the Vikings. Soon afterward, Culpepper suffered a serious knee injury that ended his season. He was traded to Miami during the offseason after his relationship with the team soured.
Williams, a free agent after 10 years in the league, missed the last half of the season with a knee injury. The Vikings don't plan to re-sign him, and Friedberg described him in court Wednesday as "retired."